Societal Impact Statement: Cultivation of strawberry plants in urban production systems, whether in green open‐air spaces or under some form of protected horticulture such as vertical farming, has demonstrated to be challenging to new farmers and businesses. Commercial strawberry producers have an advanced understanding of strawberry plant physiology, enabling them to grow the crop successfully and profitably. Lack of knowledge exchange between commercial growers and new urban farmers seems to result in the abandonment of strawberries as crop of choice in urban systems. This review will confront the specific plant science challenges urban growers need to address to incorporate this nutritional crop into their revolutionary urban growing systems, whilst achieving good quality produce with high yields.Summary: To ensure a sustainable future of farming, urban horticulture (UH) will need to be a key part of our everyday life. There are increasing demands for higher productivity and more locally produced food, even close to densely populated urban areas, to address environmental pressures and accelerate the resilience of modern food systems. UH is a broad term and can include numerous cultivation methods; rooftop gardens, public spaces, vertical walls, indoor vertical farms, as well as an array of crops including, salads, soft fruits and trees. Crops such as strawberries are expected to soon make a significant contribution to UH. Urban strawberry production promises all‐year round fruit availability, reduced reliance on imports, increased self‐sufficiency, lower food miles, a supply of high‐quality fresh fruits from hyper‐local spaces, increased employment opportunities, welfare benefits and an opportunity to promote a sense of community. Strawberry is a complex perennial crop with agronomical challenges, which requires specialist knowledge that is not always available to new urban farmers. Achieving an urban version of a strawberry field will require knowledge exchange between the commercial rural strawberry producers and the newly entered urban growers. Plant physiology, management of plant pathogens, choice of propagation material, fertigation, pollination and environmental requirements are the most common challenges for urban strawberry production. This review aims to consolidate the common bottleneck challenges of UH for new urban strawberry facilities.

Urban agriculture refers to any type of activity located within or around a city designed to provide ecosystem services. Given the rapid population growth and urbanization, urban agriculture is seen as a potential alternative route to a more sustainable urban food system. This review answers the main question: What are the benefits of non-commercial of Urban Agriculture (NCUA) forms and its contribution towards food production? using a systematic literature review approach. The methodology involved capturing 1355 recent articles from qualified search engines, using key terms according to the defined question, then screened for relevance and the defined scope of this review, resulting in a final selection of 40 articles for analysis. The results show that implementing NCUA practices has multifaced social, economic, and environmental benefits, such as improving people’s health, reducing expenditure on food and creating sustainable cities, highlighting the need to recognize the multifaceted role of NCUA in promoting a more sustainable lifestyle and strengthening local communities and engagement. Moreover, awareness of urban agriculture differs between developed and developing countries, as does the recognition and valorization of its benefits. Further research is needed to examine the enabling factors and barriers to NCUA adoption in different urban context, the resource implications, and the long-term sustainability of these practices.

Drought severely impacts crop yields, especially wheat. Antitranspirants, which reduce water loss, have been shown to improve crop yield under drought, possibly by increasing pollen viability. To understand the mechanisms, transcriptomic responses were studied in early meiotic wheat anthers extracted from polytunnel-grown plants: well-watered, droughted unsprayed, and droughted plants treated with antitranspirants. Film (Vapor Gard (VG), di-1-p-menthene) and metabolic (Abscisic Acid (ABA), 20% S-ABA) antitranspirants were applied at the flag leaf stage (GS39). Well-watered (WW) plant anthers had more upregulated genes (626 genes) than downregulated ones (226 genes) when compared to droughted unsprayed ones. Most of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were transcriptionally downregulated (3959 genes) in droughted, treated-plant anthers (ABA and VG) compared with unsprayed (US), and the number of genes with upregulated expression was lower (830 genes). VG-treated plant anthers had more downregulated genes (3325 genes) than ABA-treated ones (634 genes). Carbohydrate or sugar metabolism and related processes were affected in antitranspirant-treated plant anthers with significant downregulation of genes compared to droughted unsprayed ones; in contrast, these processes were upregulated in well-watered anthers, suggesting broad differences in the transcriptional response. However, antitranspirants did not significantly affect pollen viability or yield in treated plants compared to unsprayed plants, suggesting that anthers are more sensitive at the transcriptomic level than subsequent physiological processes determining yield.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), as one of the most important oil crops around the world, has been affected by drought considerably, particularly at flowering when crops are most sensitive to water stress. It has been shown that film antitranspirant (AT) can effectively reduce the yield loss of droughted crops if applied at the critical stage. However, the mechanism remains unclear by which AT mitigates drought damage to plants under different rates of water depletion. Two experiments in randomised complete block designs were conducted on spring rapeseed with two levels of irrigation, well-watered (WW) and water-stressed (WS), where slow and fast soil water depletion were imposed during the flowering stage in mesocosms (Expt 1_SD) and pots (Expt 2_FD), respectively, and different concentrations of AT, 0, 0.25%, 0.5%, and 1% and 0, 0.5%, and 1%, were applied. Leaf physiological traits, seed yield, and yield components were determined. The results showed that compared to WW, water stress reduced leaf relative water content (RWC) by 2% and 6% in Expt 1_SD and Expt 2_FD, respectively, and had detrimental effects on stomatal conductance, CO₂ assimilation rate, and intrinsic water use efficiency. Following AT application, a positive linear relationship was observed in leaf RWC against AT concentrations, albeit with large variations. In Expt 1_SD, seed dry weight and aboveground biomass increased significantly with increasing AT concentrations, while no yield responses were observed in Expt 2_FD, indicating that soil water status may play an important role in rapeseed responses to AT application regardless of concentrations. Therefore, the timing of AT application needs to consider soil water conditions in addition to the growth development of rapeseed plants.

ISHS VI International Conference on Managing Quality in Chains IRRIGATION AFFECTS POSTHARVEST DISCOLOURATION AND YIELD IN ICEBERG LETTUCE

Drought severely impacts crop yields, especially wheat. Antitranspirants, which reduce water loss, have been shown to improve crop yield under drought, possibly by increasing pollen viability. To understand the mechanisms, transcriptomic responses were studied in early meiotic wheat anthers extracted from polytunnel-grown plants: well-watered, droughted unsprayed, and droughted plants treated with antitranspirants. Film (Vapor Gard (VG), di-1-p-menthene) and metabolic (Abscisic Acid (ABA), 20% S-ABA) antitranspirants were applied at the flag leaf stage (GS39). Well-watered (WW) plant anthers had more upregulated genes (626 genes) than downregulated ones (226 genes) when compared to droughted unsprayed ones. Most of the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were transcriptionally downregulated (3,959 genes) in droughted, treated-plant anthers (ABA and VG) compared with unsprayed (US), and the number of genes with upregulated expression was lower (830 genes). VG-treated plant anthers had more downregulated genes (3,325 genes) than ABA-treated ones (634 genes). Carbohydrate or sugar metabolism and related processes were affected in antitranspirant-treated plant anthers with significant downregulation of genes compared to droughted unsprayed ones; in contrast, these processes were upregulated in well-watered anthers, suggesting broad differences in the transcriptional response. However, antitranspirants did not significantly affect pollen viability or yield in treated plants compared to unsprayed plants, suggesting that anthers are more sensitive at the transcriptomic level than subsequent physiological processes determining yield.