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Travel Notes, Vegetable Thoughts and Beyond

The recent ISHS-sponsored symposium held in Perugia, Italy on June 7-10, 2004, and entitled ‘Toward ecologically sound fertilization practices for field vegetable production’ was the fifth workshop of this series after meetings in Switzerland (1992), Germany (1995), United Kingdom (1998), The Netherlands (2000) and Canada (2002; the International Horticulture Congress). The topic and purpose of the workshop are self-explanatory: defining the possibility of reconciling profitable field vegetable production with environmental quality. Placed in the context of vegetable production in Florida, the topic of this symposium which was attended by approximately 125 scientists from 20+ countries, sounds familiar: how to talk ‘BMP’ without saying it. Surprisingly, the American representation was limited (in quantity, but not in quality) to a Floridian, Mississippian, and a neo-Floridian exiled Frenchy. Like many ISHS meetings, the format consisted of two days of lecture split by a field tour. Details of the program can be found at http://www.unipg.it/ishs2004/. Random comments:

1. Environmental issues are important only once production horticulture allows a steady food supply. Despite the unequivocal topic of the conference, only one-out-of -four sections was focused on nutrient management, factors that move nitrate below the root zone, and interactions between fertilization and irrigation. This was session C ‘Methodologies and strategies for a sound fertilisation’. Session A ‘Base processed’ was an excellent brief, but to-the-point refresher course on principles of fertilization. Again, close to our interest in Florida, the topic of how to conduct fertilizer trials and how to develop fertilization from the results, was discussed – and little agreed upon (like in Florida). Session B (‘Crop nutrient requirements, yield and quality’) presented results of the effect of fertilization on yield and quality of vegetables, while ‘non-conventional nutrient sources’ (session D) focused on the use of by-products ad fertilizers. Overall, increasing production through a judicious fertility program was the main thrust of the meeting.

2. Summary poster sessions are a definite plus. Each of four sessions included an oral part, and a poster session. Yet, bringing a novel practice, the organizers requested one poster presenter in each session to provide (as an oral presentation) a summary of the poster session (does this make sense?). Well, the way it was done, it really did. Before the meeting, the organizers provided the ‘summarizers’ complete abstracts of their poster session. Seeing clearly explained ahead of the poster session how many countries were represented, how many crops were discussed, what were the similarities and differences among the studies gave unity to poster sessions. This idea deserves a larger adoption!

3. The strength of the Florida Extension Service is its relevance to the industry and its connection with applied research. The respective fate of extension services (whatever their specific names are) in different countries was much part of the break discussions. As a broad statement, extension as a publically funded service is under fire pretty much every where. What is different is how well current establishments resist the fire. It was comforting to see how well connected, relevant, and aware Extension faculty (specialists and agents) at UF are to the matters important to Floridians. Unlike most other countries, we have ‘Florida FIRST’. We should keep it this way.

4. International understanding. Speaking English to a French scientist for 20 minutes on a fertilization issues and then telling him that you and he were born in the same town few months apart is a spicy experience! Joke apart, we should be thankful for English to be the international scientific language. This way, we can only blame ourselves for confused thoughts ... not the translation. Which is the correct spelling by the way: fertiliser or fertilizer?

5. BMPs and environmental protection are touchy topics for vegetable growers everywhere. One excellent oral presentation in Session C entitled ‘Management factors contributing to nitrate leaching loss from a greenhouse-based intensive vegetable production systems’ (in southern Spain) presented survey information provided by greenhouse growers from the Almeria region. Respondents seemed to have provided candid responses which explained the title of the presentation: several simple practices need to be changed to reduce the risk of environmental discharge like in Florida.

6. ‘Ciao, Perugia!’. Dr. Francesco Tei and his group met the standards of excellence in perfectly organizing this symposium. Thanks! Where to next? Did I hear ‘Sweden’ (2007) after the next International Horticulture Congress in Seoul (2006)?

(Eric Simonne and David Studstill, Horticultural Sciences Department - Vegetarian 04-07)