Horticulture - An Overview

Horticulture, broadly, is ‘cultivating crops’. But the subject at hand is much more than growing fruits, flowers & vegetables. It’s an art, that demands creativity at times. It’s a science - a synthesis of botanical and agricultural subjects. It’s a technology that deals with advanced tools and techniques. It’s plant propagation, crop production, plant biochemistry, plant physiology, breeding & genetic engineering.

It’s about the storage, processing and transportation of – fruits, flowers, nuts, trees, vegetables, shrubs & turfs – extended to orchard, nursery & ornamental plants as well. It’s about improving crop yielding, crop quality, its nutritional value – and resistance to insects, diseases & environmental stresses. Horticulture is a vast discipline of study.

Etymology

The following Latin words together form ‘horticulture’.

hortus ( garden plant )
cultura ( culture )

Classically, horiculture is the culture of cultivating.

Types of Horticulture

• Amateur Horticulture – This is associated with growing for oneself – just because of a personal inclination towards plants and nature. It’s a hobby, requiring only interest & curiosity !
• Commercial Horticulture – To put it simply, this is growing for others. It’s about earning a ‘living’ from that, by growing what the market demands, and making money from it! It’s Professional, requiring expertise this time.

Five Areas in the Study of Horticulture

1. Floriculture – Deals with Floral Crops

It’s a field of horticulture concerned with production and marketing of cut flowers, bedding plants, foliage plants, pot plants etc. These are generally herbaceous, and are grown in cell packs – in flats or trays, in pots, or in hanging baskets; usually in a controlled environment. Farming flowers and foliage employs some special aspects of floriculture, as flower harvest. This comes not just by chance but by due care and attention. For an optimal flower harvest; spacing, training and pruning should be taken care of. Some post-harvest treatments such as chemical treatments, storage, preservation and packaging, as well need to be tended to.

2. Olericulture – Deals with Vegetables. It’s a discipline of horticulture pertinent to vegetables of all genres.

3. Pomology – Deals with Fruits. Pomology, derived from Latin word ponum, is a branch of botany that’s relevant to fruits. It focuses on fruit trees’ improvements, fruit quality enhancements, and is also extended to regulation of fruit production periods
of trees.

4. Landscape horticulture – Deals with Landscape Plants. It includes all kinds of landscape plants – such as trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, turf grass etc. It’s more specifically characterized by ‘nurseries’.

5. Post-harvest physiology – Dealt with Post-harvest Activities. This is all about gathering crops, maintaining quality of, and preventing spoilage.

An Environmental Reward

Horticulture not only provides nutritional and aesthetic benefits to the individuals, but is as well, capable of contributing to one’s social environmental responsibilities. Truly said, ‘save trees & trees will save you.’

Three Components

I’d like to end this article with a quote by Prof. Bailey L. H., the famous American Horticulture scholar – “Horticulture is heavily dependent on three broad areas of knowledge : Science, Business, & Art. An appropriate balance and interaction of these three components is necessary for success in Horticulture. Rare indeed are the fields that can claim such a dependence on all three broad areas of knowledge!”

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