Horticulture

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Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation

Plant propagation

'Plant propagation' is the process of artificially or naturally distributing plants....
and cultivation

Cultivation

In agriculture, cultivation is the process of geting fater plants on arable land. It is usually associated with large-scale agriculture, as opposed to small-scale gardening....
, crop production

Crop (agriculture)

A crop is the annual or season's yield of any plant that is grown in significant quantities to be harvested as food, as livestock fodder, or for any other economic purpose....
, plant breeding

Plant breeding

Plant breeding is the art and science of changing the genetics of plants for the benefit of humankind. Plant breeding can be accomplished through many different techniques ranging from simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics for propagation, to more complex molecular techniques ....
and genetic engineering

Genetic engineering

Engineering There are a number of ways through which genetic engineering is accomplished. Essentially, the process has five main steps# Isolation of the genes of interest...
, plant biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
, and plant physiology

Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
. The work particularly involves fruit

Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s, berries, nut

Nut (fruit)

Nut is a general term for the large, dry, oily seed or fruit of some plant. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts....
s, vegetable

Vegetable

The term "vegetable" generally means the Eating parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific, however, and therefore the usage of the word is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation....
s, flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s, tree

TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s, shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
s, and turf

Sod

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns....
. Horticulturists work to improve crop yield, quality, nutrition

Nutrition

Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with good nutrition....
al value, and resistance to insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, disease

Disease

A disease or medical condition is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and Medical signs....
s, and environmental stresses.

iculture involves eight areas of study, which can be grouped into two broad sections - ornamentals and edibles: Horticulturists can work in industry, government or educational institutions or private collections.

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The study of horticulture

Horticulture involves eight areas of study, which can be grouped into two broad sections - ornamentals and edibles:

Arboriculture
Arboriculture

Arboriculture is the cultivation and management of trees within the landscape. This includes the study of how trees grow and respond to cultural practices and the environment, as well as application of cultural techniques such as selection, planting, care, surgery and removal....
the study and selection, planting, care, and removal of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants.
Floriculture
Floriculture

Floriculture, or flower farming, is a discipline of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for gardens and for floristry, comprising the floral industry....
(includes production and marketing of floral crops).
Landscape horticulture
Landscape architecture

Landscape architecture is the most modern of the environment professions and represents a synthesis of arts, science and technical philosphies and practices that seek to care for the Earth's landscapes in a truly holistic, creative and sustainable manner....
(includes production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants).
Olericulture
Olericulture

Olericulture is the science of vegetable growing, dealing with the culture of non-woody plants for food.Olericulture is the production of plants for use of the edible parts....
(includes production and marketing of vegetables).
Pomology
Pomology

Pomology is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates pome fruit, particularly from the genera Malus, Prunus and Pyrus belonging to the Rosaceae....
(includes production and marketing of fruits).
Viticulture
Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, cultivation and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture....
(includes production and marketing of grapes).
Postharvest physiology (involves maintaining quality and preventing spoilage of horticultural crops).

Horticulturists can work in industry, government or educational institutions or private collections. 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 advisers, extension specialists, plant breeders, research scientists, and of course, teachers.

Disciplines which complement horticulture include biology

Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
, botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
, entomology

Entomology

Entomology is the science study of insects. At some 1.3 million described species, insects account for more than two-thirds of all known organisms,date back some 400 million years, and have many kinds of interactions with humans and other forms of life on earth....
, chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science concerned with the composition, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions....
, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
, physiology

Physiology

Statistics

Statistics is a Mathematics pertaining to the collection, analysis, interpretation or explanation, and presentation of data. It also provides tools for prediction and forecasting based on data....
, computer science

Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
, and communications

Communication studies

Communication studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time....
, garden design

Garden design

Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Garden design may be done by the garden owner themselves, or by professionals of varying levels of experience and expertise....
, planting design

Planting design

#REDIRECT Garden_design#Planting_design...
. Plant science

Botany

Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the Scientific method of plant life and development....
and horticulture courses include: plant materials, plant propagation

Plant propagation

'Plant propagation' is the process of artificially or naturally distributing plants....
, tissue culture, crop production, post-harvest handling

Post-harvest handling

In agriculture, postharvest handling is the stage of Crop production immediately following harvest, including cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing....
, plant breeding

Plant breeding

Pollination management

Pollination Management is the label for horticultural practices that accomplish or enhance pollination of a crop, to improve yield or quality, by understanding of the particular crop's pollination needs, and by knowledgeable management of pollenizers, pollinators, and pollination conditions....
, crop nutrition, entomology

Entomology

Phytopathology

For the journal, see Plant Pathology .Plant pathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens and environmental conditions ....
, economics, and business. Some careers in horticultural science require a masters (MS) or doctoral (PhD) degree.

Horticulture is practised in many gardens, "plant growth centres" and 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-gatherer

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary List of subsistence techniques involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild, foraging and hunting without significant recourse to the domestication of either....
s to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, cultivating a variety of crops on a small scale around their dwellings or in specialized plots visited occasionally during migrations from one area to the next. (such as the "milpa

Milpa

Milpa is a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica. It has been most extensively described in the Yucat?n peninsula area of Mexico. The word milpa is a Mexican Spanish term meaning "field," and is derived from the Nahuatl word phrase mil-pa "to the field" ....
" or maize field of Mesoamerican cultures). In forest areas such horticulture is often carried out in swiddens ("slash and burn

Slash and burn

Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock, or for a variety of other purposes....
" areas). A characteristic of horticultural communities is that useful trees are often to be found planted around communities or specially retained from the natural ecosystem.

Horticulture sometimes differs from agriculture in (1) a smaller scale of cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large field of single crops (2) the cultivation of a wider variety of crops, often including fruit trees. 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

Hunter-gatherer

Plains Indians

The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains....
. In Central America, Maya horticulture involved augmentation of the forest with useful trees such as papaya

Papaya

The papaya , is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, in the genus Carica. It is native to the tropics of the Americas, and was cultivated in Mexico several centuries before the emergence of the Mesoamerica....
, avocado

Avocado

The avocado , also known as palta or aguacate , butter pear or alligator pear, is a tree native to Mexico, South America and Central America, classified in the flowering plant family Lauraceae....
, cacao

Cacao

Cacao , or the cocoa plant, is a small evergreen tree in the family Sterculiaceae , native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. There are two prominent competing hypotheses about the origins of the original wild Theobroma cacao tree....
, ceiba

Ceiba

Ceiba is the name of a genus of many species of large trees found in tropical areas, including Mexico, Central America and South America, The Bahamas, Belize and the Caribbean, West Africa, and Southeast Asia....
and sapodilla

Sapodilla

Sapodilla is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to southern Mexico and Central America. It is grown in huge quantities in India, Mexico and was introduced to the Philippines during Spanish colonisation....
. In the cornfields, multiple crops were grown such as beans (using cornstalks as supports), squash, pumpkins and chilli peppers, in some cultures tended mainly or exclusively by women.

Horticulture

The study of horticulture

Horticulture and anthropology

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See also

Bibliography

External links