INTRODUCTION TO HORTICULTURE 

The term ‘Horticulture’ is derived from two Latin words, where hortus means Garden and cultura means Cultivation. The word horticulture came into existence in the seventeenth century. It is found mentioned in Peter Laurenberg’s treatise written in 1631 however ‘E. Phillips Miller’ used the word horticulture in his book “The New World of English Word” in 1678. 

              In ancient days the gardens had protected enclosures with high walls or similar structures surrounding the houses. The enclosed places were used to grow fruit, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants. The garden crops include fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental tree, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants. The products of horticultural crops such as fruits and vegetables are easily perishable so that they are utilized in the fresh state.

              “At present the horticulture may be defined as the science and technique of production, processing and merchandizing of fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants”.

  Father of Indian Horticulture – M.H. Marigowda

  Father of Modern Horticulture in India – Dr. K.L. Chadha

  Father of Horticulture in the World- Thomas Andrew Knight, John Lindley, Liberty Hyde Bailey

  Father of Systematic Pomology – De Condole 

 Father of Olericulture – Liberty Hyde Bailey 

Special Feature of Horticulture-

 1. As horticultural crops generally need intensive cultivation, they require a large input, capital, labour and technology per unit area of land. 

2. Many cultural operations are specific to horticultural crops. The cultural operations such as propagation, fertilization, training, pruning, harvesting and marketing are skilled operations and these are specific to horticultural crops.

 3. Mostly the horticultural products are utilized in the fresh state and are highly perishable. 

 4. Most of the horticultural crops are the rich sources of vitamins and minerals. 

5. Gratification or aesthetic sense is an exclusive phenomenon for horticultural science. 

Division of Horticulture

 The cultural operations are unique to each and every group of horticultural plants. Based upon the method of cultivation, horticulture has been grouped into the following divisions.

 i. Pomology- 

The term pomology is a combination of two words “Poma” in Greek word means Fruits later subsequently transfer in to “Pome/Pomum” in Latin word means Fruits and Logos in Greek word means Study. 

Pomology is the study of fruit crops. It deals with propagation, improvement, cultivation, training, pruning and protection of fruit crops and harvesting, storage and marketing of the fruits. Pomology is concerned with the cultivation of major fruits and many under exploited fruits. 

 ii. Olericulture- 

                          The term olericulture is derived from Latin word where Oleris means Pot Herb and Culture means Cultivation. 

Olericulture refers to the cultivation of vegetable crops. It deals with the propagation, improvement, cultivation, training, aftercare and protection of vegetable crops. Importance is given to storage, processing and marketing of the harvested vegetables. Vegetables are used in culinary preparations and salad. 

iii. Floriculture-

                          It refers to the cultivation of plants which give economic flowers. Growing jasmines, roses, chrysanthemum etc. on commercial scale for cut flowers or for extraction of essential oils in the important aspect of floriculture. Flower arrangement and dry decorations constitute the display of cut flowers, this is yet other aspect of floriculture. 

iv. Landscape Gardening-

                                             Growing ornamental plants to decorate indoor and outdoor areas is called gardening. Foliage plants, flowering annuals, biennials, perennials, climbers, succulents, cacti, palm, ferns, etc. are grown in garden to have a good scenery in these places. Laying out of gardens in parks, outside the building and open places to imitate the natural scenery is called out door gardening or landscape gardening.

 v. Plantation crops-

                                    Plants that are usually grown in large stretches of lands are called plantation crops. Coconut, arecanut, coffee, tea and rubber are important plantation crops grown in India.

 vi. Spices crops-

                             Spices are plants products used in cookery to season or flavor food. Plants yielding spices are called spice crops e.g. ginger, turmeric, clove, cinnamon, pepper etc.  Some spices add flavour as well as taste to the foods and are called condiments e.g. coriander, cumin, mustard etc. 

vii. Medicinal and aromatic plants-

                                                              Plants which give active principles used in drugs are called medicinal plants. The active principles may be alkaloids or steroids, which are responsible for 
preventive and curative action of drugs e.g. foxglove, opium, raulwolfia senna, ashwagandha, sarpgandha, etc. 

viii. Post harvest technology- 

                                                   Fruits and vegetables are collected during the cropping season and processed to preserve them for making them available while there no cropping. Such processing industries show rapid development in recent years. They process fruit into jam, jelly, marmalades, squashes, syrup etc. 

Table 1- Differences between fruits and vegetables 

SI.No.	Fruits	Vegetables
1.	Fruits plants are perennial in nature	most of the vegetable are annuals
2.	Fruit plants are sexually and asexually propagated	Mostly majority of them are sexually propagated
3.	Fruit plants require special practices like training and are required seasonally.	Cultivation of vegetable is seasonal and special techniques like pruning and training are generally not required
4.	Fruit plants are generally woody in nature	Vegetable plants are generally non-woody
5.	Only Fruit is edible but sometimes false fruit also edible (e.g. Fleshy thalamus of apple)	All parts of the plant are edible
6.	Mostly consumed raw after ripening	Generally consumed after cooking
7.	Fruits are always acidic in nature	Vegetables are alkaline in nature

 Table 2- Area and Production of Horticultural Crops

***********Crops*	Area MHa Estimated 2019-20	Area MHa Estimated 2020-21	Production MT Final 2019-20	Production MT Estimated 2020-21
Horticulture	27.17	26.46	320.77	326.58
Fruits	8.8	9.0	103.23
Vegetables	12.8	13.0	188.91	193.61
Flowers	0.30	0.31	3.00	3.05
Plantation	3.88	-	16.24	-
M&A	0.62	-	0.79	-
Spices	3.82	-	9.42	-

Recent Trends in Horticulture 

   With rising pressure on the land and haunting environmental crisis, maintaining sustainability in agri-horti system has been much sought after aspect. To ensure livelihood security to the native population vis-a-vis nutritional security to the mass at large, horticulture sector has been recognized as the best viable alternative. According to NHB (2018) though, horticultural crops cover 33 per cent of the total area under agriculture, they contribute to about 30.4 per cent of the 

GDP from agriculture. Due to planned emphasis laid on Horticulture, India is accredited as the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables, largest producer and consumer of cashewnut, tea and spices, third largest producer of coconut, fourth largest producer and consumer of rubber and sixth largest producer of coffee in the world. Accordingly, initiatives are being undertaken to popularize hi-tech horticulture.

 Hi-tech Horticulture :-

       As the name indicates, hi-tech horticulture is technology intensive production system. It is time and space dimensions compatible system of production in which inputs and resources are combined judiciously so as to maximize return many times more than the conventional system of production. Use of micro-irrigation system, protected cultivation, precision farming, high density planting, integrated nutrient management (INM), etc. are important facets of hi-tech horticulture.

 Micro-irrigation

             The term micro-irrigation implies to application of water to the plants by drippers/emitters. At present, many modifications of micro-irrigations are available and micro-sprinklers, micro-jets, micro-tubes, misters, foggers, micro-jets, fanjets etc. are some of them.  

Protected cultivation

        It is also called as green house cultivation. Actually, constrained by rhythmic change in climate to grow the crop whenever needed, the concept of protected cultivation gets sensitized and with rising trade in horticulture, it is getting popular progressively. Green house cultivation was adopted in USA and Europe during 19th century.  

       Green house is a framed or inflated structure constructed using glass or plastic material in which growing environment is controlled suitably to grow the crops. With boom in retail sector, protected cultivation is catching fast momentum in India. A variety of vegetables, short duration-short growing fruits and flowers have been found suitable for green house cultivation. Strawberry, capsicum baby-corn, tomato, cucumber, rose, gerbera, chrysanthemum, cactus, orchids etc. are under cultivation in green house. The crop grown under remains protected from wind and rains also. Green house hastens maturity of the crops, increases yield, improves quality and in many instances reduces the load of insects and pests.  

High Density Planting (HDP)  

         Accommodating more number of plants per unit area in comparison to normal planting is referred to as HDP. It was attempted successfully in Europe during early sixties in under-taking apple 

plantation following the use of dwarfing rootstocks. Besides Europe, HDP is in commercial practice to grow temperate fruit crops in Australia, America, Japan, New Zealand and Israel. In present day scenario when land: man ratio is declining sharply, HDP needs due popularity. In India, HDP has been successfully attempted in apple, peach, pear, banana, pineapple, papaya, guava, mango and citrus etc. 

Meadow Orchard (MO)

         Meadow orchards are defined as the planting of high stemmed fruit trees that stand scattered on meadow, pastures or waysides. As the trees stand well spaced out, the area can be used for cattle herding, for example. The apple and guava trees planted in such orchards are old species with an intensive taste and aroma. The meadow orchard ecological value as features of our cultural landscape worthy of preservation is well known e.g. in meadow orcharding plants are found 20,000-1,00,000 trees/ha 

 Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) 

It is a system of maintaining fertility of the soil ensuring judicious use of different sources of nutrients enabling better availability of nutrients to the plants so as to harvest desired productivity of the crop on sustainable basis. Under INM strategy, attempt is made to conjugate use of organic and inorganic sources of nutrients so that without jeopardizing innate fertility level of soil, optimum yield level can be achieved. Recently, among organic inputs, bio-fertilizer is receiving commercial acceptability. It improves uptake and availability of essential macro and micronutrients. The demand of bio-fertilizer is on the rise and necessary initiations have to be taken for adequate supply of bio-fertilizers. 

Organic Farming

 An approach of farming without use of chemical input is termed as organic farming. Increasing demand for green safe food has attracted the attention of people towards organic farming. It emphasizes upon management practices-agronomical, biological and mechanical for sustainable production, with no reliance on synthetic inputs. For manuring FYM, compost, vermin-compost, oil cakes, green manuring etc. are utilized in the field. Incorporation of leguminous crop in farming help assists in maintaining nitrogen level in the soil. Botanicals are used as protectant in combating pests/diseases problem. To claim any product organic, certification is required. The product labeled as organic fetch premium price in the market.