Preharvest/Postharvest Factors and Storage Techniques for Improving Horticultural Crop Quality and Shelf Life
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural Science and Ornamental Plants".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 569
Special Issue Editor
Interests: postharvest physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The growth rate of horticultural products has increased considerably in recent years. However, their quality is easily affected by various preharvest and postharvest environmental stresses. Preharvest factors such as cultivation practices, nutrient management, irrigation, light conditions, and biotic or abiotic stresses play crucial roles in determining the physiological status and ultimate quality of horticultural products. After harvest, these products remain highly susceptible to stress conditions during handling and storage, often leading to quality deterioration and decay, resulting in substantial global losses. Therefore, postharvest environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and gas composition, as well as various treatments such as packaging and fresh-cut processing, can significantly influence the ripening, senescence, postharvest quality, disease incidence, and shelf life of horticultural crops. This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in preharvest and postharvest factors, physiological regulation, quality formation, stress responses, and storage technologies in horticultural crops.
Dr. Yuquan Duan
Guest Editor
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. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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
- postharvest
- preharvest
- storage
- horticultural crops
- physiology
- mechanism
- quality
- shelf life
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