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Grafting of vegetable seedlings is a unique horticultural technology practiced for many years in East Asia to overcome issues associated with intensive cultivation using limited arable land. This technology was introduced to Europe and other countries in the late 20th century along with improved grafting methods suitable for commercial production of grafted vegetable seedlings. Later, grafting was introduced to North America from Europe and it is now attracting growing interest, both from greenhouse growers and organic producers. Grafting onto specific rootstocks generally provides resistance to soilborne diseases and nematodes and increases yield. Grafting is an effective technology for use in combination with more sustainable crop production practices, including reduced rates and overall use of soil fumigants in many other countries. Currently, over 40 million grafted tomato seedlings are estimated to be used annually in North American greenhouses, and several commercial trials have been conducted for promoting use of grafted melon seedlings in open fields. Nevertheless, there are issues identified that currently limit adoption of grafted seedlings in North America. One issue unique to North America is the large number of seedlings needed in a single shipment for large-scale, open-field production systems. Semi- or fully-automated grafting robots were invented by several agricultural machine industries in the 1990s, yet the available models are limited. The lack of flexibility of the existing robots also limits their wider use. Strategies to resolve these issues are discussed, including the use of a highly controlled environment to promote the standardized seedlings suitable for automation and better storage techniques. To use this technology widely in North American fresh vegetable production, more information and locally collected scientific and technical data are needed.

Cherries, and in particular sweet cherries, are a nutritionally dense food rich in anthocyanins, quercetin, hydroxycinnamates, potassium, fiber, vitamin C, carotenoids, and melatonin. UV concentration, degree of ripeness, postharvest storage conditions, and processing, each can significantly alter the amounts of nutrients and bioactive components. These constituent nutrients and bioactive food components support the potential preventive health benefits of cherry intake in relation to cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and Alzheimer's disease. Mechanistically, cherries exhibit relatively high antioxidant activity, low glycemic response, COX 1 and 2 enzyme inhibition, and other anti-carcinogenic effects in vitro and in animal experiments. Well-designed cherry feeding studies are needed to further substantiate any health benefits in humans.

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The influence of salinity stress on the growth, appearance, and nutritional compounds, especially phenolic compounds and carotenoids, of romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), a low salt tolerant plant, was studied. The dry weight, height, and color of the lettuce plants were significantly changed by long-term irrigation (15 days) with higher NaCl concentration (i.e., >100 mM). However, no significant differences were observed in the growth and appearance among the control, all short-term treatments (2 days; 50, 100, 500, and 1000 mM), and long-term irrigation with low salt concentration. Moreover, in romaine lettuce treated with long-term irrigation with 5 mM NaCl, the total carotenoid content increased without color change, and the contents of major carotenoids in romaine lettuce, lutein and beta-carotene, increased 37 and 80%, respectively. No differences were observed in lutein and beta-carotene contents in short-term-treated lettuce. The phenolic content of the romaine lettuce declined with short-term salt irrigation, whereas there were no significant differences among treatments exposed to long-term irrigation. This research indicates that long-term irrigation with relatively low salt concentration, rather than short-term irrigation with high salt concentration, can increase carotenoid content in romaine lettuce without causing a tradeoff in yield or visual quality.