Emerging Insights into Horticultural Crop Ecophysiology

Abiotic stressors driven by climate change increasingly threaten global horticultural productivity and crop quality. This closing editorial synthesizes nine multidisciplinary articles published in the Special Issue, focusing on physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms governing crop resilience and secondary metabolite biosynthesis. Through comprehensive assessments of biostimulant applications, seed priming memory, and sugar-mediated signaling, the featured studies demonstrate that targeted exogenous treatments such as amino-acids, seaweed extracts, and melatonin effectively alleviate heat, drought, and salinity damage. Furthermore, research highlights the role of genetic regulators like flavonol synthase (ZjFLS) and tissue culture stress in metabolic reprogramming. Long-term studies reveal persistent physiological benefits of seed priming on photosynthetic efficiency and dry matter allocation in fruit crops. Altogether, this Special Issue addresses the knowledge gaps by bridging fundamental cellular responses with applied agronomic practices. To ensure sustainable horticultural production under escalating environmental pressures, future research must prioritize multi-stress field trials, epigenetic mechanisms underlying stress memory, multi-omics integration, and standardized field protocols for biostimulant management.