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From February 28th to March 1st, 2024, 185 scientists from all horticultural disciplines - including a large number of young scientists - gathered for the well-attended 56th annual conference of the German Horticultural Science Society (DGG) and the Federal Association of Students and Graduates of Higher Education Studies in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (BHGL) at the Thünen Institute in Braunschweig to present and discuss current research findings in horticulture as well as to network.

On January 27, 2024, the HortiBonn agroforestry team conducted a stakeholder workshop at the agroforestry system in Hof Lebensberg in Rhineland-Pfalz as part of the ReForest project. The project is a Horizon Europe funded project aimed at fostering innovation, supporting knowledge exchange, and providing novel solutions to empower farmers in Europe and associated countries to deliver multiple objectives: food production, carbon capture, and biodiversity.

Apple replant disease (ARD) is a globally recognised soil-borne disease, which affects apple orchards and tree nurseries. Biotic factors are considered to be the main causal agent of ARD. Phenolics and phytoalexins were induced in apple roots grown in ARD soil compared to roots grown in disinfested ARD soil.

A series of workshops and field visits were conducted in November 2023 in Northern Ghana (Tamale) by the BMBF funding initiatives INTERFACES, COINS and DEcLARe projects. COINS and DEcLARe are regional project whose activities are being supported by INTERFACES in their endeavour to drive change for sustainable land management in sub-Saharan Africa.

The canopies of complex ecosystems such as tropical rainforests are difficult to assess with conventional ground-based methods. Today, drone-based imaging offers new possibilities to study and better understand key canopy processes such as tree transpiration (water use).

Tropentag, the largest interdisciplinary conference in Europe, recently unfolded its chapters in Berlin, and HortiBonn proudly contributed to the vibrant discussions on “Competing Pathways for Equitable Food Systems Transformation: Trade-offs and Synergies.

Bad Sassendorf. Die Agroforstwirtschaft erfährt in Nordrhein-Westfalen eine rasante Entwicklung. Zahlreiche Initiativen arbeiten daran, die Agroforstwirtschaft in die landwirtschaftliche Praxis zu integrieren. Doch dies geschieht oft isoliert. Mit dem Ziel der dauerhaften Vernetzung trafen sich jetzt zentrale Akteurinnen und Akteure aus Landwirtschaft, Naturschutz, Wissenschaft, landwirtschaftlicher Beratung, Verbänden und Verwaltung, um eine gemeinsame Perspektive für die Agroforstwirtschaft als integralem Bestandteil einer zukunftsfähigen Landwirtschaft in NRW zu entwickeln.

On Friday, August 18, the annual Apple Day of the Dienstleistungszentrum Ländlicher Raum Rheinland-Pfalz (DLR) took place at the Klein-Altendorf site.

From 26th to 28th of June 2023, horticultural modellers from all over the world met at the “International Symposium on models for plant growth, environments, farm management in orchards and protected cultivation”- Horchimodel 2023.

By the end of June, after a rich exchange of experiences with agroforestry experts from all over Europe during the General Assembly Meeting of the ReForest project in Barcelona, we visited several agroforestry interventions in the North Eastern Catalan province of Girona.