The motto of IHC2018 is ‘Bridging the World through Horticulture’. The Congress will be heavily focused on research and innovation and will have training components related to various fields of Horticulture.

IHC2018 will provide an excellent platform for scientists, technicians, students, consultants, engineers, extension agents, growers, industry, trade and consumer organisations, policy makers and other professionals having an interest in horticulture.

The Congress will have a rich scientific program to allow a diffuse interaction among scientists as well as institutions. The Symposia, the backbone of the Congress, will have different formats tailored according to the topic. Additionally, there will be colloqia and workshops, ad hoc training sessions and technical tours. Technical tours will be accompanied by Turkish experts and include historical and cultural components.

The Scientific Symposia will include:

• Plant Genetic Resources: Sustainable Management and Utilization for Food, Nutrition and Environmental Security (5th International Symposium)
• Micropropagation and In Vitro Techniques (2nd International Symposium)
• Applied Functional Molecular Biology
• XI International Symposium on Banana: ISHS-ProMusa Symposium on Growing and Marketing Banana under Subtropical Conditions
• Tropical and Subtropical Fruits (7th International Symposium)
• Avocado
• Jackfruit and other Moraceae (2nd International Symposium)
• Jujube (4th International Symposium)
• Evaluation of Cultivars, Rootstocks and Management Systems for Sustainable Production of Deciduous Fruit Crops
• Understanding Fruit Tree Behaviour in Dynamic Environments
• Nuts and Mediterranean Climate Fruits: Advances in Breeding and New Strategies of Horticultural Management for Sustainable Production
• Berry Fruit (3rd International Symposium)
• Viticulture: Primary Production and Processing
• Postharvest Quality of Ornamental Plants (11^th International Symposium)
• Ornamental Horticulture: Colour Your World
• Tropical and Subtropical Vegetable Production: Tackling Present and Future Global Biotic and Abiotic Stressors
• Innovation and New Technologies in Protected Cultivation (3rd International Symposium)
• Soilless Culture (2nd International Symposium)
• Root and Tuber Crops: Value Added Crops for the Next Generation (2nd International Symposium)
• Plant Breeding in Horticulture (2nd International Symposium)
• Quality and Safety of Horticultural Products
• FAVHEALTH2018: Human Health Effects of Fruits and Vegetables (7th International Symposium)
• Organic Horticulture for Wellbeing of the Environment and Population (2nd International Symposium)
• Horticultural Economics and Management (19th International Symposium), Improving the Performance of Supply Chains in the Transitional Economies(7th International Symposium) and Horticulture Economics, Marketing and Consumer Research (2nd International Symposium)
• Landscape and Urban Horticulture (7th International Conference)
• Turfgrass Management and Science for Sports Fields: Bridging the needs and research on turfgrass at the age of climate change (4th International Conference)
• Fruit and Vegetables for Processing
• Innovative Plant Protection in Horticulture (2nd International Symposium)
• Advances in Production and Processing of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
• Culinary Herbs and Edible Fungi
• Mechanization, Precision Horticulture, and Robotics (2nd International symposium)
• Strategies and Technologies to Maintain Quality and Reduce Postharvest Losses
• Water and Nutrient Relations and Management of Horticultural Crops
• The Second International Symposium on Date Palm
• VIII International Symposium on Seed, Transplant and Stand Establishment of Horticultural Crops
• VIIIth Symposium on Education, Research Training and Consultancy: Panels
• International Symposium on Carob: a Neglected Species with Genetic Resources for Multifunctional Uses
• 10^th International Symposium on Temperate Fruits in the Tropics and Subtropics
• Saffron Biology and Biotechnology

Colloquia and workshops will also be held during the Congress. Of note:

“Phenotyping for Horticultural Crops” (workshop)

Phenotypes provide the essential link between genetic information and biological structure and function of a plant dynamically responding to a fluctuating environment. Understanding the plant environment interaction and quantitative assessment of plant phenotype in different environmental scenarios under controlled and field environment is important in basic plant science, in breeding as well as in production measures such as irrigation and fertigation. Within the last decade, genomic data has been becoming easily accessible and a number of crops has been sequenced, yet the phenotypic information is not keeping pace with the explosion in available genomic information. The lack of reliable and available phenotypic data may limit the use of methods needed to identify the associations between phenotypic and genotypic data. This phenotypic gap is a major challenge in biological understanding of plant processes and their translation into practical application. A coordinated effort is required to effectively address this gap by: i) fostering a standardization of phenotyping protocols, ii) establishment of complementary phenotyping facilities that are available for access to the user community, iii) development of data standards to facilitate database searches, data comparisons, and extrapolations. A close interaction between phenotyping experts and users from different disciplines to specifically address the demand and requirements of different disciplines such as horticulture is urgently needed.

Main themes:

• Crop water status
• Detection of plant wilting
• Breeding targets
• Phenotyping under controlled and field conditions
• Efficient use of resources
• Biotic and abiotic stress tolerance
• Standardisation
• Exchange options
• Data management
• Technology implementation
• Access to phenotyping infrastructure