Pepper cultivation requires a great amount of manual labor, especially for varieties needing support stakes to prevent them bending or breaking in heavy winds or rain. In Korea, it is recommended to secure support stakes and string lines carefully, so as to minimize the risk of damage caused by typhoons. The harvesting of peppers is a labor-intensive process with low rates of mechanization.The removal of stakes is particularly time-consuming during mechanical harvesting, and lodging is a major issue during cultivation and mechanical harvesting. Given increased mechanization during pepper harvesting, it is important to consider these issues when undertaking variety development and cultivation method improvements. Further research and development are required to improve cultivation practices and develop pepper varieties that are more resistant to lodging. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of different cultivation methods on pepper lodging, thus broadening our knowledge on the desirable architecture of pepper plants required for lodging tolerance.

The term ‘lodging’ in agriculture is usually used when the crops fall from their upright position before harvesting. Various factors may be responsible, including inherent weaknesses in the stem, resulting from low lignin content or small root systems.Weather, such as strong winds or rains, will also likely increase lodging. Insect or disease damage can also weaken the plants, and cultural practices, such as fertilization, irrigation, and cultivation techniques, may increase the risk. Most of the research studies on lodging have been undertaken on cereal crops, but this is also an issue with many vegetable crops, and especially those that require mechanized harvesting. In this review, the issue of lodging in solanaceous vegetable crops is discussed, with an emphasis on the key risk factors and potential areas for future research that can identify damage mitigation strategies.

The effects of exogenous sodium nitroprusside (SNP, nitric oxide donor) on the growth, yield, photosynthetic characteristics, and antioxidant enzyme activity of kimchi cabbage (Brassica rapa L. subsp. pekinensis (Lour.) Hanelt) was studied under the low temperature conditions. Kimchi cabbages were treated with SNP of three concentrations (7.5, 15, 30 mg·L-1) for three times at four-day intervals and exposed to low temperature (16/7°C) stress for seven days. SNP treatment induced increases of net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), intracellular CO2 concentration (Ci) and transpiration rate (Tr) under the stress condition with the highest level after the third treatment. The contents of malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 were significantly lower in the treatment of SNP compared to the non-treated control. The activity of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), increased in treated plants by up to 38, 187, 24 and 175%, respectively compared to the non-treated control. SNP-treated and untreated plants had similar growth characteristics. Compared to the control group, SNP-treatment increased fresh weight and leaf area by 5%. Overall, our findings suggest that the application of sodium nitroprusside to the leaves contributes to reducing physiological damage and enhancing the activities of antioxidant enzymes, thereby improving low temperature stress tolerance in kimchi cabbage.

The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) maintains the world’s largest public vegetable germplasm collection. The Genebank contains over 65,000 accessions and consists of more than 130 genera and 330 species. It includes around 12,000 accessions of indigenous vegetables. The WorldVeg Korea Office (WKO) has been conducting regional adaptability evaluations in the fields of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science (NIHHS), with a focus on major solanaceous vegetable crops such as tomato, chili, and bell pepper. As climate change significantly affects vegetable crop productivity, the development of high-performing cultivars, tolerant to various abiotic and biotic stresses with enriched nutrients inside, is essential to enhance agricultural sustainability and human health. In this regard, the evaluation of growth and horticultural characteristics of pepper and tomato accessions from the WorldVeg will help contribute to the generation of new and improved cultivars, to address global challenges that affect food security, sustainability, and adaptation to climate change. Here, we summarize our activities and the results of the regional adaptability evaluation using the WorldVeg accessions of pepper and tomato germplasms.

살리실산은 식물의 생장 및 발달, 항산화 방어기작, 광합성 작용 그리고 생물적 및 비생물적 스트레스 조건에서 다양한 생리적 기능을 조절하는 물질로 알려져 있다. 본 연구에서는 고온･건조 스트레스 조건에서 살리실산 경엽처리가 고추의 생육, 광합성 특성 및 항산화효소 활성에 미치는 영향을 구명 하고자 하였다. 광합성 특성 측정결과 광합성 속도, 기공전도 도 및 증산 속도가 증가하였고, 3회차 처리에서 가장 높았다. 세포내 MDA와 H2O2 함량은 살리실산 3회차 처리에서 현저 하게 감소하는 경향을 보였다. APX, CAT, POD 및 SOD 활 성이 현저하게 증가하였으며, 무처리 대비 최대 247, 318, 55 및 54% 증가하였다. 고추의 생육 특성은 무처리구와 유의한 차이를 보이지 않았으나, 상품 수량은 15% 정도 증가하였다. 이러한 결과들을 종합해 볼 때, 살리실산의 경엽처리는 고추 의 광합성 특성과 항산화효소 활성을 증진시켜 고온･건조 스트 레스에 의한 피해 경감에 긍정적 효과를 유발함을 확인하였다

Protected agriculture has great potential for the vegetable industry in the Philippines as it allows the application of modern cultivation techniques to mitigate adverse weather conditions and enable farmers to manage pests and diseases efficiently. Thus, to address the increasing demand for food in the Philippines, one strategy to increase vegetable production which is tested and/or proven is through the intensified use of protective structures. This review describes the magnitude and potential of agriculture in the Philippines, focusing on the protected cultivation of horticultural crops. The Philippines is far behind in greenhouse technologies compared to other Asian countries where thousands to millions of hectares are used for protected vegetable cultivation. Several studies have investigated the economic viability and applicability of low- and high-cost protective structures in typhoon-prone countries such as the Philippines, demonstrating that protective structures are feasible and profitable. Also, the impact of protected cultivation as compared to the open field has resulted in significantly higher yield and better quality of produce. Hence, the Philippine government with the assistance of the Republic of Korea agreed to improve the country’s flagging vegetable industry and endeavor to attain the status of a food-secure country through the establishment of smart greenhouse technologies. Overall, despite the limitations due to the high cost of electricity and construction protected cultivation facilities including required technologies provide greater advantages for seasonal and off-seasonal vegetable crop production compared to that in the open field. Moreover, such technology can be applied to various geographical locations such as plains, hills, deserts, rural, and urban areas.

The plant-specific transcription factor, LEAFY (LFY) is considered to be a master regulator of flower development in the model plant, Arabidopsis. This protein plays a dual role in plant growth, integrating signals from the floral inductive pathways and acting as a floral meristem identity gene by activating genes for floral organ development. Although LFY occupies an important position in flower development, the functional divergence of LFY homologues has been demonstrated in several plants including monocots and gymnosperms. In particular, the functional roles of LFY genes from orchid species such as Phalaenopsis that contain unique floral morphologies with distinct expression patterns of floral organ identity genes remain elusive. Here, PaLFY, a orthologue of Arabidopsis LFY from Phalaenopsis aphrodite subsp. formosana, a Taiwanese native monopodial orchid was isolated and characterized through analyses of expression and protein activity. PaLFY transcripts accumulated in the floral primordia of developing inflorescences and the PaLFY protein had transcriptional autoactivation activity forming as a homodimer. Furthermore, PaLFY rescues the aberrant floral phenotypes of Arabidopsis lfy mutants. Over-expression of PaLFY alone or together with PaFT1, a P. aphrodite subsp. formosana homologue of Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) in rice caused precocious heading. Consistently, higher chlorophyll content in the sepals and morphological changes in epidermal cells were observed in the floral organs of PaLFY knock-down orchids generated by virus-induced gene silencing. Taken together, these results suggest that PaLFY is functionally distinct from RICE FLORICAULA/LEAFY (RFL) but similar to Arabidopsis LFY based on phenotypes of our transgenic Arabidopsis and rice plants.