The present work illustrates the theoretical basis and the methodological approach of a new decision support system (DSS) program - called ArtichoN - for the management of N fertilization in artichoke crop; it uses a simplified N-balance model with the aim of providing to the farmers helpful tools to maintain their profitability, while minimizing the environmental impact of N-fertilization. The methodological approach used for scheduling N-fertilization is based on forecast of the daily amount of N uptake by the crop and of N available into the root zone in order to fulfil N-crop requirements by the soundest N supply to the soil, as follows: N-fertilization = N-crop uptake – N-soil availability. This DSS works on a daily basis through the following steps: a) estimation of a daily dry mass accumulation on the basis of cumulated degree days; b) derivation of the daily N-uptake by the crop as a function of the estimated accumulation of DM using specific N-dilution curves; c) estimation of the daily N-available in the soil intercepted by the roots (mineral and mineralised); d) daily N-balance (N-uptake – N-available in the soil); e) make a decision on the N-application rate and application scheduling on the base of the balance result and on moment of the growing cycle; For the steps a and b, it uses specific regression curves built by fitting non-linear functions on experimental data in Sothern Italy area obtained from literature. For the estimation of N mineralization it uses an approach from literature. The program allows to simulate crop growth by using historical meteorological data (multiannual averaged daily minimum and maximum temperature: Tmin and Tmax) specific of the area where the farm is located and thus producing a foresight N-fertilization plan.

Reduced water availability and environmental pollution caused by nitrogen (N) losses have increased the need for rational management of irrigation and N fertilization in horticultural systems. Decision support systems (DSS) could be powerful tools to assist farmers to improve irrigation and N fertilization efficiency. Currently, fertilization by drip irrigation system (fertigation) is used for many vegetable crops around the world. The paper illustrates the theoretical basis, the methodological approach and the structure of a DSS called GesCoN for fertigation management in open field vegetable crops. The DSS is based on daily water and N balance, considering the water lost by evapotranspiration (ET) and the N content in the aerial part of the crop (N uptake) as subtraction and the availability of water and N in the wet soil volume most effected by roots as the positive part. For the water balance, reference ET can be estimated using the Penman-Monteith (PM) or the Priestley-Taylor and Hargreaves models, specifically calibrated under local conditions. Both single or dual Kc approach can be used to calculate crop ET. Rain runoff and deep percolation are considered to calculate the effective rainfall. The soil volume most effected by the roots, the wet soil under emitters and their interactions are modelled. Crop growth is modelled by a non-linear logistic function on the basis of thermal time, but the model takes into account thermal and water stresses and allows an in-season calibration through a dynamic adaptation of the growth rate to the specific genetic and environmental conditions. N crop demand is related to DM accumulation by the N critical curve. N mineralization from soil organic matter is daily estimated. The DSS helps users to evaluate the daily amount of water and N fertilizer that has to be applied in order to fulfil the water and N-crop requirements to achieve the maximum potential yield, while reducing the risk of nitrate outflows.

Two field experiments were carried out during 2005 and 2006 to study the effect of four N-fertilization rates (0 (N0), 100 (N100), 200 (N200), and 300 (N300) kg ha-1) on yield, growth, N uptake, and N use efficiency of processing tomato in a silty-clay soil under Mediterranean conditions. N supply positively affected LAI (leaf area index), radiation use efficiency (RUE), above-ground dry weight (DW) and N accumulation. The respective maximum values 4.6, 1.16 g MJ-1, 13.4 Mg ha-1, and 383 kg ha-1 were detected with N300. However, passing from the N200 to the N300 rate, the DW and the N tissue content mostly increased in the vegetative organs resulting in lower total and marketable yield, attributable mainly to the lower number of fruit in N300 plants. N excess exacerbates the unbalanced vegetative/reproductive plant growth which occurred when seasonal temperatures negatively affected crop productivity by reducing fruit load. Maximum total and marketable yield were obtained with the N200 rate and were respectively 155 and 119 Mg ha-1 in 2005 and 135 and 104 Mg ha-1 in 2006 season. N supply quadratically decreased the agronomical (NUEa) and physiological (NUEp) N use efficiency, these indices reaching a maximum with the N200 rate (NUEa = 11.8 kg kg-1, NUEp = 15.1 kg kg-1). However, increasing N supply decreased partial factor productivity and the efficiency in N fertilizer recovery linearly to 24 and 0.55 kg kg-1. Nitrogen nutrition index (NNI) was 0.8 in N0 plants and increased up to 1.3–1.4 with N300. Under Mediterranean conditions and with the specific tomato cultivar, the N200 rate can be considered the most efficient both in terms of yield and NUE, and the respective NNI values of 1.15–1.23 (in the period from maximum LAI to harvest) could be associated with the optimal N nutritional status of the crop indicating that the minimal N concentration to obtain the maximum above-ground DW is higher than that proposed as critical for this crop. From an environmental standpoint, a 200 kg ha-1 of nitrogen fertilizer dose would put this production system in N balance, with N removal from the field being close to 200 kg ha-1 with a yield goal of 100–120 kg ha-1 of marketable fruits containing 1.97 kg Mg-1 of N.

The biodiversity in vegetable crops is composed by the genetic diversity, as species diversity (interspecific diversity) and as diversity of genes within a species (intraspecific diversity) referring to the vegetable grown varieties, and by the diversity of agro-ecosystems (agrobiodiversity). Intraspecific diversity is very ample in vegetable crops and is not reflected, at least not to the same extent, in other groups of crops. The labour operated by farmers over centuries of selection has led to the creation of a plurality of local varieties, following domestication of cultivated forms, and wide agro-biodiversity, a precious heritage both from a genetic and a cultural-historical point of view. The Italian National Statistical Institute (ISTAT) takes into account in its annual survey about forty vegetable crops. Intraspecific diversity in vegetables can also be analyzed by examining the information contained in the common catalogue of varieties of vegetable species. The 27 EU Countries as a whole had entered 19,576 varieties of vegetables in the common catalogue as of August 2011. The Netherlands, which represents 8% of total vegetable production in the EU, has registered 7826 varieties. Italy and Spain, which predominate in Europe for the production of vegetables, have registered only 8% (1513) and 9% (1672) of the total varieties, respectively. As a whole 54% of the European varieties entered in the catalogue are hybrids. Puglia, which contributes with about 22% to the Italian vegetable growing area, is among the leading regions for the productions of broccoli raab, celery, parsley, processing tomato, artichoke, endive and escarole, cabbage, fennel, lettuce, cucumber, cauliflower and broccoli, early potato, and asparagus (all with more than 20% of the national area). The region is particularly rich in local vegetable varieties, obtained by farmers themselves after repeated simple selection procedures generation after generation. The local varieties for which there is a strong link with the Puglia traditions and which are described in this review are: carota di Polignano (Polignano carrot) and carota di sant'Ippazio (saint Ippazio carrot) (Apiaceae), cipolla di Acquaviva delle Fonti"(Acquaviva delle Fonti onion) and cipolla bianca di Margherita (Margherita white onion) (Liliaceae), cima di rapa (broccoli raab) (Brassicaceae), unripe melon carosello, barattiere, meloncella, etc. (Cucurbitaceae), catalogna chicory cicoria di Molfetta e cicoria di Galatina (Molfetta's chicory and Galatina's chicory) (Asteraceae). © A. Elia and P. Santamaria, 2013.

NELLE PROVE svolte in provincia di Foggia è stata valutata l’attività di tre solfonilureee (rimsulfuron, clorsulfuron e triasulfuron), applicate con differenti modalità ed epoche per il controllo dell’orobanche (Phelipanche ramosa) sul pomodoro da industria. Rimsulfuron, unico prodotto attualmente registrato per il diserbo in post-emergenza del pomodoro da industria, ha evidenziato la migliore effi cacia mostrandosi selettivo sulla coltura. L’applicazione con irrigazione a goccia rappresenta una interessante via percorribile.

The purpose of this research was to define a plant management for the improvement of high quality off-shoots production in two artichoke cultivars grown in Apulia region (Southern Italy): ‘Brindisino’ and ‘Violetto di Provenza’. A mother-plant (MP) field was settled on October 2004 in a hilly area in Foggia province (Apulia, Southern Italy). They were evaluated three techniques for MP management: a) traditional (Trad): MP were treated as in a commercial field (two off-shoots per plant were allowed to growth and to produce heads); b) apex removal (AR): removal of all off-shoots except one, on which the apex was removed when it differentiated from vegetative to reproductive phase; c) shoot removal (SR): removal of all standard (hereinafter described) off-shoots. From autumn 2005 to spring 2008, six pickings (3 in autumn and 3 in spring) of standard off-shoots (> 2 cm basal diameter and 5-6 fully expanded leaves) were carried out. At each picking, the off-shoots/plant and their position on the rhizome, their leaf number, height, and leaf lamina shape (margin) [entire (E), slight lobed (SL), deeply lobed (DL)], were recorded. The off-shoots picked on November 2005 and April 2006 were rooted under nursery conditions for 2 months and then were transplanted in field to evaluate the earliness and the productivity of the plants obtained from them. They were picked 108,000, 90,000 and 38,000 off-shoots/ha, for the treatment SR, AR and Trad, respectively. Unrespectively of picking time, the control plants (Trad) always produced 4 off-shoots, while in AR-plants the older the plants the higher the number of off-shoots that, at the same time, were more deeply inserted on the rhizome, with higher basal diameter, and with higher number of roots. Especially in the first year, the SR treatment caused alternate high-low number of off-shoots at each subsequent picking, even if the earliness in head production was anticipated by 23 days compared to the other treatments.

In Apulia region (Southern Italy) the early artichoke cultivar ‘Brindisino’ is widely cultivated; its fall production (early yield) is destined to fresh market, while the spring secondary production is used by the processing industry. Recently a new “seed”-propagated cultivar (‘Madrigal’) has been proposed mainly for processing industry. The aim of the study was to compare head suitability for processing of ‘Madrigal’ (high-yielding and late) with the standard cultivar ‘Brindisino’. Head samples, uniform in size and weight, at optimal stage for processing, were selected during spring period and were processed by eliminating the stem, by cutting the top part for the 60% or the 70% of their total height, and by eliminating the outermost and the hardest bracts (15-20). Starting from the subsequent bract, every single bract was subjected to the measure of cutting force with a penetrometer, until the optimal degree of tenderness, set to 35 Newton (N). Analyses were also performed for the determination of total phenols content in the inner and outer bracts. The heads weighed on average 126 g. ‘Brindisino’ showed a higher total number of bracts than ‘Madrigal’ (82 vs 75). In ‘Brindisino’ there is a noticeable difference in N values as function of cut height, in ‘Madrigal’ the contrary is true, especially in the outer bracts. With 70%-height cut the first useful internal bract (cutting resistance less than 35 N) was about the 36st for both cultivars; with the tallest cut the first useful bract was the 24th and 28th in ‘Brindisino’ and ‘Madrigal’, respectively. ‘Madrigal' waste was lower than ‘Brindisino’ and the incidence of head processed weight on the total raw weight was 5% higher in ‘Madrigal’. The phenol content was lower in ‘Madrigal’ compared to ‘Brindisino’ heads by 70% and 39% in outer and inner bracts, respectively.

No information seems to be available on the effect of mycorrhizae on reducing the environmental impact of saline-water irrigation. This study investigated 1) the behaviour of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal geranium plants irrigated with saline water; and 2) the influence of the symbiosis on the leachates and the substratum. Mycorrhizal (Glomus deserticola and Glomus intraradices) and non-mycorrhizal plants of Pelargonium × hortorum ‘Markab’ were grown in pots for three months in a greenhouse and subjected to three irrigation treatments. Each treatment represented an EC salinity level (0.85 dS m-1, control, C; 3 dS m-1, medium salinity, MS; 6 dS m-1, high salinity, HS). The frequency and intensity of mycorrhizal colonization by G. intraradices in geranium roots was greater than colonization by G. deserticola. For increasing salinity levels, ionic uptake in geranium plants (Cl-, Na+ and Ca2+) was greater and accordingly, ionic concentrations (Cl-, Na+, Ca2+ but also K+) were higher in the leached water. The chemical composition of the substratum was significantly modified by salinity. Mycorrhizae increased leaf area and dry shoot weight and the Cl-, Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations found in mycorrhizal plants were smaller than in non-mycorrhizal plants. A decrease in Cl- and Na+ concentration was observed in MS geraniums inoculated with G. deserticola, while G. intraradices reduced Ca2+ and Cl- in HS plants. In leachates, the impact of salinity was mitigated by mycorrhizae, mainly G. intraradices and in the substratum, G. deserticola reduced Na+ concentration in the HS treatment and total limestone in the MS treatment. Based on these results, mycorrhizal inoculation improves the growth of geranium plants under saline conditions and reduces harmful environmental effects caused by salinity.

Weed management studies in lampascione e Muscari comosum (L.) Mill e a bulb crop, were carried out in the Apulia Region (southern Italy) in 2007e2008 and 2008e2009, using various pre- and postemergence herbicides. Herbicide treatments were compared with hand-weeded and unweeded controls. Weed control and crop injury index, yield, morphology and dry matter content of bulbs were recorded. The most dominant weed species were Veronica hederifolia L., Lamium purpureum L., and Stellaria media (L.) Vill. Manual weeding gave the highest yield (11.3 t/ha, on average), that was 31% higher compared to the unweeded control. During winter and until four months after planting, both pre-emergence herbicides were effective in keeping soil free from weeds, without negative effects on the sprouting or growth of lampascione bulbs. Among the tested post-emergence active ingredients, Oxyfluorfen, Oxadiazon, and Ioxynil- Pendimethalin and Oxyfluorfen þ Pendimethalin mixtures showed a low selectivity toward the crop. Despite a good weed control with a low level of crop injury, Ionyxil produced also negative effects on bulb dry matter. Pendimethalin and Chloridazon were variable in their effect and they did not provide clear results either in terms of phyto-toxicity or weed control, therefore they should be further investigated. Flazasulfuron always resulted in very low crop injury (14%, on average) and adequate weed control (56%, on average), while maintaining a 14% higher mean yield compared to the unweeded control and similar to the weed-free control. Since the lampascione crop has a long cycle from winter to early summer, we suggest that a combination of a pre-emergence herbicide (Chlorthal-dimethyl or Chlorpropham) in winter, followed by a post-emergence Flazasulfuron application at 100 g a.i./ha in early spring, should allow the best weed control without any negative effects on bulb yield.