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Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) requires large amounts of nitrogen (N) fertilizer to produce high yields. The intercropping of cauliflower with a leguminous species may help farmers to reduce N fertilizer rates, production costs and environmental pollution. Moreover, the recycling of crop residues can contribute to the nutritional support of subsequent crops in a rotation. In this study, cauliflower was cultivated in year one either alone or intercropped with annual clover (Trifolium resupinatum L.), using four N fertilization rates: 0, 75, 150, and 300 kg N ha−1 (referred to as N0, N1, N2, and N3 respectively). Following crop residue incorporation in year two, iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata (L.) Janchen) was cropped on the same field without the supply of N fertilizer to assess the effect of cauliflower and clover residues as well as of residual N fertilizer rates on the growth and N uptake of lettuce. The presence of clover did not affect the marketable yields of the intercropped cauliflower, which were similar to the cauliflower sole-cropped. The N1 and N2 fertilizer rates maximized both growth and N uptake of the intercropped cauliflower, while with the N3, crop development was limited. In the N0 plot, the legume competed for N and depressed growth and N absorption of cauliflower. The sole-cropped cauliflower was, on the contrary, unaffected by the N fertilizer rates. The iceberg lettuce cultivated in succession benefited from the presence of clover in plots N1 and N2. When succeeded to the sole-cropped cauliflower, however, the iceberg lettuce produced less biomass and absorbed less N. Results from this study suggest that the intercropping system cauliflower-clover can be a sustainable tool to optimize N input and reduce N fertilizer requirements for the successive crop.

Il capitolo riguarda lo scenario di riferimento dell'orticoltura, con un'ampia descrizione riguardante la diffusione delle colture orticole in Italia e nel mondo. Vengono poi descritte le forme di orticoltura facendo riferimento all' orticoltura professionale e amatoriale, all'orticoltura per l’industria conserviera e per il mercato fresco, all'orticoltura sostenibile, integrata e biologica, all'orticoltura urbana e all'orticoltura sociale e terapeutica. Nel capitolo vengono anche trattati gli aspetti legati alla qualità dei prodotti orticoli.

Urban agriculture (UA) is a strategic means of achieving sustainable urban food security now and into the future. While a number of different models of agriculture will be required to provide food for the concentrated number of people in urban spaces, UA can be key tool in helping urban residents meet micronutrient requirements, whose deficiency is now recognized as the most important cause of “hidden hunger” globally. UA, or the cultivation of crops for food in small and irregular spaces within a city and its periphery, has been practiced for as long as cities have existed. However, it is gaining increased attention for both its limited scale, its effects on nutrition and community building, the associated possibilities for employment and social mobility, its relevance in a vibrant and diverse food system and for all of these reasons, its sustainability. UA projects are springing up in cities all over the world, always engaging the collaboration of multiple urban stakeholders and increasingly with a focus on the most vulnerable people in society: the poor, the elderly, children and those suffering malnutrition and chronic disease. For all city dwellers, UA improves livelihoods within the city environment by reducing city ecological footprint, strengthening city resilience to climate change and environmental hazards, reducing noise, improving air quality and the city microclimate, minimizing drought by improving storm water management and contributing to solid waste management. It increases human health and well-being through stress recovery, encouragement of exercise, reduction of urban violence, facilitating social contact, and providing sources of added employment and income. Using the concept of urban political ecology as a foundation for understanding food dynamics, this chapter will describe a range of different UA initiatives across the globe, giving special attention to their multi-functionality in the context of social vulnerabilities within urban spaces. In so doing, it will present UA as an important platform for community engagement and sustainability building toward increased food security. Turning concrete into green productive lands results in changes in physical, psychological, environmental and community health. At the same time, the application of social leftovers (abandoned lands, unused rooftops, plastic and wood containers, etc.) onto productive means creates a new model for adding micronutrition to urban diets that integrates and takes seriously social, cultural, nutritional and economic outcomes.

Nell’ambito dell’orticoltura, così come in generale in tutte le produzioni agrarie, la propagazione riveste un ruolo prioritario. Il suo scopo, infatti, è quello di fornire materiale vegetale per l’impianto delle colture: semi; piantine da seme (semenzali); organi sotterranei (tuberi, rizomi, bulbi); piante autoradicate (moltiplicazione per talea, margotta, propaggine); piante innestate; piante micro-propagate (da colture in vitro). Nel capitolo vengono approfondite tutte queste modalità di propagazione con approfondimenti su alcuni casi studio (carciofo, fragola, patata)

La famiglia delle solanacee è certamente tra le più importanti a livello mondiale non solo per l’elevatissimo numero di specie in essa comprese, ma soprattutto perché sono molte quelle utilizzate a fini utilitaristici da parte dell’uomo e assai diversi sono i prodotti ottenuti. Vi fanno parte infatti piante largamente impiegate per l’alimentazione umana (ortive diverse), piante coltivate per l’ottenimento di prodotti destinati alla trasformazione (ad esempio tabacco), piante utilizzate dall’industria farmaceutica (ad esempio, stramonio, belladonna), piante impiegate a scopi ornamentali (dei generi Cestrum, Petunia, Solandra, Solanum, ecc.). Le specie utilizzate a fini alimentari e di interesse orticolo sono a livello mondiale una quarantina e l’organo impiegato può essere costituito dal fusto metamorfosato (per esempio patata), dalle foglie (per esempio morella comune), dai frutti (per esempio pomodoro). Nel capitolo vengono descritte le caratteristiche biologiche e le tecniche di coltivazione di quelle specie che assumono maggiore importanza economica: patata, pomodoro, peperone, melanzana.

Modern vegetable growers want to operate in an environmentally sound way, but how can vegetables be grown with minimal losses to the environment? Answers are first required to basic questions: What is soil fertility and what role do plant nutrients play in vegetable production? What are typical amounts and forms of plant nutrients in soils? What nutrient forms do crops take up? What are the input and output of plant nutrients to and from soils? What factors affect conversion between forms? What variations in plant nutrient availability occur between soils? To optimize plant nutrition, it is necessary to ask: Which plant processes are particularly sensitive to plant nutrients? How do nutrients move within the plant? How do plant nutrients affect growth, yield and quality of the produce? What will be the crop’s nutrient requirement throughout the growing season? What will be the total requirement of the crop for nutrients? What is the expected trend of nutrient concentration in the different organs during the growing season? Decision-making in fertilization strategy requires answers to other specific questions: When is soil and plant nutrient status considered sufficient? What are the critical values or ranges for plant nutrients? What type of soil and plant analyses are best for making fertilizer recommendations? What will be the supply of nutrients from the soil? What are the natural and man-supplied sources of plant nutrients? Which principles of plant nutrient management does the grower need to understand and apply to ensure unrestricted crop growth, product quality and minimum environmental pollution? How effective will any application of manure and fertilizer be and, therefore, how much should be applied?