Horticulture

Information about Horticulture

Horticulture (Latin: hortus (garden) + cultura (culture)) is the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture as classically defined is the subdivision of agriculture dealing in gardening, in contrast to agronomy, which deals with field crops and the production of grains and forage,[1] and forestry which deals with forest trees and products related to them.[2] Horticulturists work in plant propagation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, plant physiology, and the storage, processing, and transportation of fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs, and turf. They improve crop yield, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses. Genetics is also used as a valuable tool in the development of plants that can synthesize phytochemicals for pharmaceutical use.

The study of horticulture

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Horticulture involves six areas of study, which can be grouped into two broad sections - ornamentals and edibles:
  • Arboriculture the study and selection, planting, care, and removal of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants.
  • Floriculture (includes production and marketing of floral crops),
  • Landscape horticulture (includes production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants).
  • Olericulture (includes production and marketing of vegetables).
  • Pomology (includes production and marketing of fruits)
  • Postharvest physiology (involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops).
Horticulturists can work in industry, government, or educational institutions. They can be cropping systems engineers, wholesale or retail business managers, propagators and tissue culture specialists (fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and turf), crop inspectors, crop production advisors, extension specialists, plant breeders, research scientists, and of course, teachers.

College courses that complement Horticulture are biology, botany, entomology, chemistry, mathematics, genetics, physiology, statistics, computer science, and communications, garden design, planting design. Plant science and horticulture courses include: plant materials, plant propagation, tissue culture, crop production, post-harvest handling, plant breeding, pollination management, crop nutrition, entomology, plant pathology, economics, and business. Some careers in horticultural science require a masters (MS) or doctoral (PhD) degree.

Horticulture takes place in many gardens and plant growth centres. Plants are often grown as seedlings within plant nurseries. Activities in nurseries range from preparing seeds and cuttings to growing fully mature plants. These are often sold or transferred to ornamental gardens or market gardens.

Horticulture and anthropology

The origins of horticulture lie in the transition of human communities from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, cultivating a variety of crops on a small scale around their dwellings or in specialized plots at some remove (such as the "milpa" or maize field of Mesoamerican cultures[3]). In forest areas such horticulture is often carried out in swiddens ("slash and burn" areas)[4]. A characteristic of horticultural communities is that useful trees are often to be found planted around communities or specially retained from the natural ecosystem.

Horticultural communities may be distinguished from agricultural ones by (1) the small scale of the cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large field of single crops (2) the use of a variety of crops, often including fruit trees (3) the encouragement of useful native plants alongside direct cultivation (4) continued use of other forms of livelihood. In pre-contact North America the semi-sedentary horticultural communities of the Eastern Woodlands (growing maize, squash and sunflower) contrasted markedly with the mobile hunter-gatherer communities of the Plains people. In Central America, Maya horticulture involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya, avocado, cacao, ceiba and sapodilla. In the cornfields, multiple crops were grown such as beans (using cornstalks as supports), squash, pumpkins and chili peppers, in some cultures tended mainly or exclusively by women [5].

Gallery


The Butchart Gardens, British Columbia, Canada

Cool climate greenhouses extend the growing season

Community gardens often have several horticultural practices in use


References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Janick, Jules. 1979. Horticultural science. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. Page 1.
3. ^ von Hagen, V.W. (1957) The Ancient Sun Kingdoms Of The Americas. Ohio: The World Publishing Company
4. ^ McGee, J.R. and Kruse, M. (1986) Swidden horticulture among the Lacandon Maya [videorecording (29 mins.)] . University of California, Berkeley: Extension Media Center
5. ^ Thompson, S.I. (1977) Women, Horticulture, and Society in Tropical America. American Anthropologist, N.S., 79: 908-910

See also

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Latin}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Vatican City
Used for official purposes, but not spoken in everyday speech
Regulated by: Opus Fundatum Latinitas
Roman Catholic Church
Language codes
ISO 639-1: la
ISO 639-2: lat
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A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form is known as a residential garden.
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A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form is known as a residential garden.
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Botany is the scientific study of plant life. As a branch of biology, it is also called plant science(s), phytology, or plant biology. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study plants, algae, and fungi including: structure, growth,
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Agriculture (from Agri Latin for ager ("a field"), and culture, from the Latin cultura "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil". A literal reading of the English word yields "tillage of the soil of a field".
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Agronomy is a branch of agricultural science that deals with the study of field crops and grassland management and the soils in which they grow. It involves the production of food products from farming, the production of animal feed and fiber crops.
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GRAIN is an international non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, which works toward sustainable agriculture. It was formed upon the realization that the genetic diversity of the world's food crops has been drastically eliminated.
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Forage is the herbaceous plant material (mainly plant leaves and legumes) eaten by grazing animals. The major forage types:
  1. Pasture
  2. Rangeland
  3. Hay
  4. Silage

See also

  • Fodder
  • Grass fed beef
  • Foraging, a method of finding food

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Forestry is the art, science, and practice of studying and managing forests and plantations, and related natural resources. Silviculture, a related science, involves the growing and tending of trees and forests.
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Plant propagation is the process of artificially or naturally propagating (distributing or spreading) plants.

Sexual propagation (seed)

Seeds and spores can be used for reproduction.
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A crop is any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, or for another economic purpose. This category includes crop species as well as agricultural techniques related to cropping.
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Plant breeding is the purposeful manipulation of plant species in order to create desired genotypes and phenotypes for specific purposes. This manipulation involves either controlled pollination, genetic engineering, or both, followed by artificial selection of progeny.
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Genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation (GM) and gene splicing are terms that are applied to the direct manipulation of an organisms genes.
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Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms.[1] The word "biochemistry" comes from the Greek word βιοχημεία biochēmeia, which means "the chemistry of life.
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Physiology (from Greek: φυσις, physis, “nature, origin”; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms.
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fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues.
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berry, in common parlance refers generically to any small fruit with multiple seeds. Aggregate fruits such as the blackberry, the raspberry, and the boysenberry are also berries in this sense, but not the botanical.
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nut can be either a seed or a fruit.

Botanical definitions

A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains unattached or unfused with the
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Vegetable is a term which generally refers to an edible part of a plant. The definition is traditional rather than scientific and is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, whole or in part, are normally considered vegetables.
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tree is a perennial woody plant. It is sometimes defined as a woody plant that attains diameter of 10 cm (30 cm girth) or more at breast height (130 cm above ground).
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A shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m (15-20 ft) tall.
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Sod is turf and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material. Sod is grown on sod or turf farms. Most sod is grown locally to avoid long transport and drying out of the product.
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Nutrition is a science that examines the relationship between diet and health. Dietitians are health professionals who specialize in this area of study, and are trained to provide safe, evidence-based dietary advice and interventions.
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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota
* Archaeognatha (bristletails)
* Thysanura (silverfish)
Subclass Pterygota
* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions. In human beings, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems
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Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.[1][2] Knowledge of the inheritance of characteristics has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding.
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The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the .
Phytochemicals are plant or fruit derived chemical compounds. "Phytonutrients" refer to phytochemicals or compounds that come from edible plants.
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