Horticulture is the science and practice of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants. It involves cultivating plants through propagation, cultivation, and processing methods to improve yields, quality, and resistance to pests and environmental stresses. Horticulture is generally done on a smaller scale than agriculture, using mixed crops in small plots rather than single crops in large fields. It is divided into floriculture, pomology, olericulture, and landscape horticulture based on the types of plants cultivated.
3. HORTICULTURE
* Horticulture has been defined as the
agriculture of plants, mainly for food materials,
comfort and beauty for decoration.
*Horticulture is the growing of flowers, fruits
and vegetables, and of plants for ornament and fancy.
* A more precise definition can be given “ The
cultivation, Processing, and sale of fruits, nuts,
vegetables, and ornamental plants as well as many
additional services.
5. * Horticulture includes plant conservation,
landscape restoration, soil management, landscape
and garden design, construction and maintenance
and arboriculture.
* In contrast to agriculture, horticulture does
not include large-scale crop production or animal
husbandry.
* Horticulture is derived from Latin word
“Hortus” meaning garden and “cultura” meaning
cultivation.
6. * At present horticulture may be defined as the
science and technique of production, processing and
merchandising of fruits, vegetables, flowers, species,
plantations medicinal and aromatic crops.
* Horticulture apply knowledge, skill and
technologies to grow intensively produced plants for
human food and non-food uses and for personal or
social needs.
* Their work involves plant propagation and
cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth,
yields, quality, nutritional value and resistance to
insects, diseases and environmental stresses.
7. * They work as gardeners, growers, therapists,
designers and technical advisor in the food and non-
food sectors of horticulture.
* Horticulture primarily differs from agriculture
in two ways.
* First, it generally encompasses a smaller scale
of cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather
than large fields of single crops.
*Secondly, horticultural cultivations generally
include a wide variety of crops, even including fruit
trees with ground crops.
8. * Horticulture is divided into the cultivation of
plants for food (pomology and olericulture) and plant
for ornament (floriculture and landscape
horticulture).
* Pomology deals with fruit and nut crops.
* Olericulture deals with herbaceous plants for
the kitchen, including for (e.x) carrots (edible root),
asparagus (edible stem), lettuce (edible leaf),
cauliflower (edible flower buds), tomatoes (edible
fruit), and peas (edible seed).
9. * Floriculture deals with the production of
flowers and ornamental plants generally cut flowers,
pot plants and greenery.
* Landscape horticulture is a broad category
that includes plants for the landscape, including lawn
turf but particularly nursery crops such as shrubs,
trees and vines.