Abstract/Summary

The Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology (JHSB) celebrates, in 2019, a century of continuously publishing peer-review, research-based articles and reviews. Since 1919 scientific discoveries and their application through subsequently evolved industrial technologies have formed the basis for enormous advances and changes in the production of fruit, vegetables and ornamentals. New industries have been founded and expanded as a result of scientific discoveries. Science has brought greater precision, predictability and reliability into horticultural crop production raising the quality and range of products available for consumers. Market forces themselves have imposed vast change in the manner by which horticultural products are produced and sold altering the industrial structures. Horticultural industries have coped with and thrived on these changes because of their swift and effective adoption of discoveries in horticultural science which in turn has driven the need for more research in a cyclic process. This review follows, through a selection of articles published in JHSB, the evolution of aspects of horticultural science and identifies how change has influenced crops and their production. Topics considered of particular prominence in the evolution of horticultural science include: pollination, fertility and compatibility; roots and rootstocks; growth regulation and plant propagation; breeding and nomenclature; nutrition; crop protection; cultivation and management; interactions between environment and growth; water-use efficiency; storage; and environment and social welfare. The history of change in horticultural science and the industries which it serves is contained within the articles selected. They demonstrate the successful manner in which JHSB has fulfilled the aspirations of its founders for a science-based journal which offers new ideas for industry. It has survived through one-hundred years vindicating the founders’ aspirations. This review does not rigorously dissect and analyse each individual aspect of horticultural science used in charting the history of JHSB’s academic voyage. It uses them as signposts showing avenues of new and developing knowledge and scholarship also identifying where discoveries have resulted in industrial progress.