The Colombian Society of Horticultural Sciences (SCCH) and the Universidad Pedagógicay Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) as editors of the Colombian Journal ofHorticultural Sciences wish to extend our special greetings to our authors and readersin these moments when the world is undergoing a difficulty of great proportions, which has been affecting the work of the world community and neither science nortechnology has been able to remain outside the effects of the well-known COVID19pandemic. However, with all the difficulties, the horticultural scientists in the worldcontinue to work and show their results in the generation of new knowledge, as acontribution to the solution of the agricultural food problem in different countries.

One of our contributions in Horticultural Sciences is to present the volume 15 issue2 (2021) to our authors and readers, which has 15 articles available in English, witha digital journal structure under the modality of the continuous publication: the acceptedmanuscripts are published first and later the final versions of the manuscriptsare published. In the contents of this issue, the Fruit Tree section contributed to fivearticles. Three of these deal with the research results in three tropical species, guava,cape gooseberry, and champa, and two articles are devoted to deciduous crops cultivatedin the tropical conditions, the peach and apple trees. For the tropical species, theissues of identification of new genetic resources for cape gooseberry, Physalis peruviana,are explained with focus on its potential uses for industry or fresh consumption. Areview article is devoted to the ecophysiology of guava cultivation that will guide thenew research projects in this area. In champa species, the effects of the interactionof ethylene, 1-methylcyclopropene and low temperatures are shown on the postharvestbehavior of this promising fruit for Colombia. For deciduous species, as the peachtrees, the relationship between the weed population, the type of soil, and its interactionwith the Rubidoux variety of peach is shown; in apple trees, an article deals withthe growth of fruits and the physicochemical changes in fruits in the highland tropicalareas.

The section of Vegetables for this issue includes publications related to plant geneticresources, in particular, the genotype-environment interaction in cherry tomato, heritabilityand genetic gain in cowpea beans, and morphological characterization of pea(Pisum sativum) genotypes. Also, the information on new technologies is included, suchas the use of multispectral images for the evaluation of the efficacy of herbicides inpeas grown under protected conditions. The Aromatic, medicinal and herb sectionprovides an article on hydroponic systems for the cultivation of basil using treateddomestic effluents, a topic of great importance today.

Our new section, which we have called Other crops, continues to increase its contentand, for this issue, presents research results on yam, a species of great importancefor the food security of the Colombian north coast population. This article is relatedto the integral management of the crop and also, the use of growth bioregulators.Our neighboring country, Brazil, includes a crop species of great importance for foodsecurity, cassava (Manihot esculenta), and one of the articles shows its developmentprocess and positioning as an industrial crop. Other topics included the articles aboutthe presence of Potyvirus sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) in maize grown in Colombiain department of Norte de Santander. Finally, there is a review article that shows thecurrent status of some devastating phytopathogens that economically affect crops ofgreat importance in Colombia - Xanthomonas phaseoli pv. manihotis (Xpm), Fusariumoxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc), Phytophthora palmivora, and Hemileia vastatrix. With thesecontents, we hope that our readers and researchers will appropriate the knowledge andthis will be a further contribution to the development of national and global horticulturalproduction.

We remind our authors to check our website https://revistas.uptc.edu.co/index.php/ciencias_horticolas/index, where we are permanently announcing some adjustmentsapproved by our Editorial Committee.

Finally, the institutions that edit and finance the RCCH would like to inform theauthors that, considering the economic impact that the agricultural sector is experiencingin general, they will temporarily suspend the charge of publication fee for thearticles starting from August - December 2021. This suspension of charge implies thatthe authors, from now on, should submit their manuscripts for publication in English,which were previously reviewed and corrected by the certified translators.