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Horticulturae
Special Issues
Plant Factory and Modern Horticulture
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Plant Factory and Modern Horticulture

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (16 November 2023) | Viewed by 9503

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Edwin Andres Villagran Munar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria—Agrosavia, Centro de Investigación Tibaitata, Km 14, vía Mosquera-Bogotá, Mosquera 250040, Colombia
Interests: CFD simulation; circular horticulture; passive climate control techniques; climate-smart agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Jorge Flores-Velázquez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Hydrosciences, Postgraduate Collage, Carr Mex Tex km 36.5, Montecillo Edo de Mexico 56230, Mexico
Interests: CFD simulation; closed greenhouse; automation and climate control; BES modeling and simulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The sustainable intensification of food production is an increasingly urgent need. The high vulnerability of current production systems, the environmental crisis, the scarcity of natural resources for agricultural use, the increasingly frequent and severe negative effects of climate change, and the increase in population, force us to generate technological solutions that allow an increasingly efficient and adaptable food production under diverse climatic conditions worldwide. Therefore, at present, there are technological advances that have allowed intensifying and optimizing fruit and vegetable production; within these advances is the agricultural production under greenhouses of different technological levels, where among the latest advances is the use of closed and semi-closed greenhouses, photovoltaic greenhouses, or passively heated through the use of solar or geothermal energy.

Likewise, there is the urban and peri-urban vertical agriculture implemented in rooftop greenhouses or in air-conditioned factories for the production of plants where total control of the microclimate (light, temperature, humidity, and CO2 concentration) is performed and where highly accurate irrigation and fertilization systems are required to respond in a timely manner to the physiological needs of the plants. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to collect studies focused on modern food production, and our interest is to receive and evaluate works focused on modeling and simulation of this type of systems, description and technological evaluation of production infrastructure, irrigation, fertilization, and microclimate management. We are also interested in collecting studies describing the physiological behavior of plants in these modern production environments. Lastly, we are also interested in studies on the topics of circular horticulture, climate-smart agriculture, and environmental impact studies through life cycle analysis.

Dr. Edwin Andres Villagran Munar
Dr. Jorge Flores-Velázquez
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • greenhouse food production
  • urban horticulture
  • circular horticulture
  • plant factories
  • closed greenhouse
  • passive climate control techniques
  • CFD simulation
  • automation and climate control
  • BES modeling and simulation
  • climate-smart agriculture
  • indoor vertical farming system

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 5471 KiB  
Article
CFD Modeling of the Microclimate in a Greenhouse Using a Rock Bed Thermal Storage Heating System
by Abderrahim Bazgaou, Hicham Fatnassi, Rachid Bouharroud, Rachid Tiskatine, Ahmed Wifaya, Hassan Demrati, Lahcen Bammou, Ahmed Aharoune and Lahcen Bouirden
Horticulturae 2023, 9(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae9020183 - 1 Feb 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3041
Abstract
The rock bed heating system is a more cost-effective concept for storing thermal energy use in greenhouses at night during the cold winter season. This system is considered an environmentally friendly solution compared to conventional heating systems that rely on fossil fuels. Despite [...] Read more.
The rock bed heating system is a more cost-effective concept for storing thermal energy use in greenhouses at night during the cold winter season. This system is considered an environmentally friendly solution compared to conventional heating systems that rely on fossil fuels. Despite the abundance of research on thermal energy-based heating systems, only limited work on climate modeling in greenhouses using rock bed heat storage systems has been reported. To fill this research gap, this study aims to simulate the microclimate in a greenhouse equipped with a rock bed heating system using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. User-defined functions have been implemented to account for the interactions between the plants and the air within the greenhouse. Crop rows and rock bed blocks have been considered as porous media with their dynamic and thermal proprieties. The model’s accuracy was approved by comparing simulated and experimental climate parameter data from the greenhouse. The model’s ability to predict temperature, humidity, and air velocity fields in the greenhouse as well as in the rock bed system during both phases of energy storage and restitution was demonstrated. The thermal, dynamic, and hygric fields were accurately replicated with this numerical model. The growing zone had a vertical temperature gradient between the ground and the greenhouse roof, as well as high humidity. The distribution of temperature fields along the rock bed blocks showed a significant temperature gradient between the air inlet and outlet in the blocks during the two phases of heat storage and restitution. As a result, the model could be useful for sensitivity studies to improve the performance of this thermal storage heating system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Factory and Modern Horticulture)
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9 pages, 596 KiB  
Article
Quality and Yield of Bell Pepper Cultivated with Two and Three Stems in a Modern Agriculture System
by Jorge Flores-Velazquez, Cándido Mendoza-Perez, Juan Enrique Rubiños-Panta and Jesus del Rosario Ruelas-Islas
Horticulturae 2022, 8(12), 1187; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8121187 - 13 Dec 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5440
Abstract
Bell pepper is a very important crop for its value in domestic and foreign markets. Actually, growers have adopted different management practices. In that aspect, management with different numbers of stems can define the quality and quantity of the product, as well as [...] Read more.
Bell pepper is a very important crop for its value in domestic and foreign markets. Actually, growers have adopted different management practices. In that aspect, management with different numbers of stems can define the quality and quantity of the product, as well as any increase in yield. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics of fruits in terms of the quality and postharvest of bell pepper, as well as the yield according to the number of stems grown in a hydroponic system under greenhouse conditions. The experiment consisted of four treatments: two stems (T1) and three stems (T2) on a ‘Cannon’ cultivar, as well as two stems (T3) and three stems (T4) on a ‘Bragi’ cultivar. Fruits were sampled to determine total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), maturity index (MI), vitamin C (VC), lycopene content, size, shape, color, firmness, and yield. High vitamin C concentration of 120 mg 100 g−1 was found in both cultivars. Treatments from ‘Cannon’ had the higher TSS content, lycopene levels and firmness. Regarding the physical characteristics, T1 of ‘Cannon’ had better fruit size: 63% (large), 35% (medium) and 2% (small). The highest yield was obtained in T2 of ‘Bragi’ with 6.50 kg m−2. It was observed that total number of fruits increased as the number of stems increased. However, the size of the fruits decreased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Factory and Modern Horticulture)
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