Advancements in Controlled-Environment Horticulture

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Protected Culture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 June 2026 | Viewed by 991

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Horticulture Department, Shenyang Agricultural University, No. 120 Dongling Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110866, China
Interests: abiotic stresses; plant; physiological; molecular
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Shenyang Agricultural University, No. 120 Dongling Road, Shenhe District, Shenyang 110866, China
Interests: plant; physiological; molecular
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Under the triple pressures of climate change, resource shortage, and population growth, controlled-environment horticulture has become the pivotal route to securing year-round, premium-quality supplies of vegetables, flowers, and seedlings.

This Special Issue, “Advancements in Controlled-Environment Horticulture”, is designed to present state-of-the-art research that tackles these challenges through climate-resilient, resource-efficient, and sustainable production technologies. We invite novel studies on the precise regulation of light, temperature, humidity, CO2, and nutrients, together with advanced disease monitoring, in greenhouses, plant factories, and vertical farms.

Prof. Dr. Yufeng Liu
Dr. Xiangnan Meng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • product quality
  • green agriculture
  • climate control
  • disease monitoring

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 931 KB  
Article
From Climate Control to Crop Reproducibility: An Intelligent IoT System for Vertical Horticulture
by Fernando Fuentes-Peñailillo, Pabla Rebolledo, Abel Cruces and Gilda Carrasco
Horticulturae 2026, 12(4), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae12040429 - 1 Apr 2026
Viewed by 673
Abstract
Ensuring experimental reproducibility and reliable isolation of crop responses remain critical challenges in vertical farming and controlled-environment horticulture, where minor microclimatic fluctuations can mask treatment effects and compromise comparability across experiments. This study presents an intelligent, low-cost IoT-based climate management system designed as [...] Read more.
Ensuring experimental reproducibility and reliable isolation of crop responses remain critical challenges in vertical farming and controlled-environment horticulture, where minor microclimatic fluctuations can mask treatment effects and compromise comparability across experiments. This study presents an intelligent, low-cost IoT-based climate management system designed as a methodological framework to stabilize environmental conditions and support reproducible crop responses in vertical horticulture. The system integrates real-time multi-sensor monitoring of temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and CO2 concentration with automated high-power actuation for lighting and ventilation within a unified control framework. The platform was validated using lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Ofelia) cultivated under controlled vertical farming conditions, where environmental stability enabled the reliable detection of plant responses to contrast light spectra. Crop performance was evaluated through biomass accumulation, morphological traits, and nutritional quality parameters. The intelligent control system maintained environmental setpoints within narrow ranges throughout the cultivation cycle, minimizing microclimatic variability across vertical tiers. As a result, observed differences in plant growth and biochemical composition were less likely to be confounded by environmental drift. By shifting the role of IoT technologies from simple automation tools to experimental enablers, this work illustrates how intelligent climate control can support reproducibility, scalability, and methodological robustness in vertical horticulture research. The proposed open, modular architecture provides a transferable framework for reproducible crop experimentation and production in controlled-environment systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancements in Controlled-Environment Horticulture)
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