Volume 14, number 1 of 2020, of the Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas is an edition that I will fondly remember because it marks my start as an editor-in-chief of a scientific journal, after having acted as the co-editor for the 2 previous issues. I shall fulfill my duties with the greatest responsibility for what I consider to be one of the best horticulture journals in Colombia.

This edition will also be remembered because it was published in the midst of the largest epidemiological crisis the world has experienced in recent years, the Covid-19 pandemic. The Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas decided to actively continue its work, as have many other scientific, academic journals and institutions, in order to send a message to our readers, authors, reviewers and society in general that, in the midst of so much difficulty, we must continue to contribute to the development and dissemination of scientific information.

On behalf of the two editorial institutions Sociedad Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas (SCCH) and the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC), I thank the Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander (UFPS) and its co-editor Marlon Hans Rodríguez for contributing to the journal for several years, ending in 2020. Their participation was very important and decisive for the growth of the journal in recent years.

We will continue to work hard to maintain the frequency, quality and impact that define the journal; we are also preparing to participate in the “Convocatoria para indexación de revistas científicas colombianas especializadas - Publindex 2020” (Call to index specialized Colombian scientific journals - Publindex 2020), with the aim of maintaining the category B award from 2018.

The digital format of the journal in English will remain, with continuous publication of accepted manuscripts that can be changed with final, diagrammed versions. In this issue, there are 13 articles, nine of which are in the Fruit Tree Section with research results on the inheritance of seed size in watermelon populations, the conventional and alternative management of Capulinia linarosae in guava, the estimation of the nitrogen nutritional level through the measurement of chlorophyll in guava, a phenological study on the cholupa (Passiflora maliformis L.), the tolerance to water-saline stress in some promising species from the Passifloraceae family, the relationship between soil fertility and incidence of plantain bacterial diseases, and, finally, three reviews of the pitaya fruit quality (Hylocereus undatus), the ecophysiology of cape gooseberries and the seed-fruit relationships in fleshy fruit trees.

The vegetable section has four articles that report results on the adjustment of a logistic model for productive characteristics in lettuce cultivars under summer conditions, the partial molecular characterization of begomoviruses isolated from weeds collected in tomato crops, the use of BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Predictors) analysis in advanced stages of selection in creole potatoes, and the growth and partition of potato dry matter as influenced by paclobutrazol applied to seed tubers.

We want to take the opportunity to thank Dr. Diego Miranda Lasprilla for directing the journal during 2019. I also want to highlight the valuable collaboration of all the reviewers who anonymously contributed to the improvement of the scientific quality of the journal. Finally, the journal thanks all the authors who contributed to this issue and invites its national and international readers to submit their works on horticultural issues for publication.