Emphasis in agricultural production has shifted from mere quantity to quality products. Practical experience and scientific investigations have shown that, of the various culture measures, balanced fertilization above all exerts a considerable influence on the quality of agricultural products. Simply adding more of what the crop has already absorbed to capacity is unproductive, expensive, wasteful and damaging to the environment. Therefore, balanced crop nutrition increases crop quality, safeguards natural resources and brings benefit to the farmer. Otherwise rapid population growth and severe urbanization will exhaust our natural resources.

Both nutrient scarcities and surpluses alike can threaten this balance.

The book Potassium - Improvement of Quality in Fruits and Vegetables Through Hydroponic Nutrient Management provides useful information regarding potassium nutrition management in hydroponic cultivation, which will help in producing quality horticultural crops. The first few chapters describe the role of potassium nutrition in plants, its interaction with other nutrients, its source fertilizers, the role in postharvest produce qualities, and human nutrition. Potassium fertilizer management, its metabolism in plants, and cultivation techniques of fruits and leafy vegetables are also included in the middle section. The final chapter illustrates the software development for the calculation of hydroponic nutrients including potassium for easy management of cultural solution. As a whole, this book covers several major aspects on the topic for making it a complete and useful resource.

"'Published by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program, with funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture."