Fruits, Vegetables and Flower Production, Management and Processing

INTRODUCTION TO HORTICULTURE

Pre test

1. What is Agriculture?
2. What is the difference between Plant science and Horticulture?
3. What are fruit, vegetable and flower?
4. Why we study horticulture for AVBM and other disciplines?
5. Defined the word nursery and orchard?

Definition

The term HORTICULTURE is derived from two Latin words

1. HORTUS meaning GARDEN and

2. CULTURA meaning CULTIVATION

Horticulture is a science and technique of production, processing and merchandizing of fruits,

vegetables, flowers, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants.

Agriculture = art and science / Technology of raising plants and animals

1. Animal Agriculture
 Animal science
 Dairy science
 Veterinary science
2. Plant Agriculture
 Agronomy...field crops mainly grains and forages
 Horticulture...so-called garden crops
 Forestry...forest trees and products

BRANCHES OF HORTICULTURE
The science of horticulture can be divided into several branches depending upon the crops it
deals with.

1. Pomology : study of fruit crops.

2. Olericulture : cultivation of vegetables.
3. Floriculture : cultivation of flower crops.
4. Plantation crops : cultivation of coconut, rubber, coffee, tea, etc.
5. Spices crops: cultivation of cardamom, pepper, ginger etc.
6. Medicinal and aromatic crops: cultivation of medicinal and aromatic crops.
7. Post harvest technology: deals with post harvest handling, grading, packaging, storage
processing, value addition, marketing etc, of horticulture crops.
8. Plant propagation : deals with propagation of plants

FEATURES OF HORTICULTURE IN GENERAL

Horticultural produces are mostly utilized in the fresh state and are highly perishable
nature.
Horticultural crops need intensive cultivation, requires large input of capital, labour and
technology per unit area.
Cultural operations like propagation, training, pruning and harvesting are skilled need
Horticultural produce are rich sources of vitamins and minerals and proteins.
Aesthetic satisfaction is an exclusive phenomenon to horticultural science.

What is the role of horticulture in human life?

Generally horticultural crop is used as

Source of daily food.

Source of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, flavour, aroma, alkaloids, oleoresins, fibre, etc.
Source of medicine.
An economic proposition as they give higher returns per unit area in terms of energy,
money, job, etc.
Employment generation
 Effective utilization of waste land through cultivation of hardy fruits and medicinal
plants.
Substitute for family income being the component of home garden/ kitchen garden.
Foreign exchange earner has higher share compare to agriculture crops.
Input for industry being amenable to processing, especially fruit and vegetable
preservation industry.
Aesthetic consideration and protection of the environment.
Religious significance in the country

Fruit

Botanically, a fruit is a modified ovary of a flowering plant, which is actually a ripened ovary,
a component of the flower’s female reproductive structure.

In the horticultural sense, a fruit is something which is eaten fresh and out of the hand or
those plant items which are commonly eaten as dessert.

Vegetable

Vegetables are crop plants which are consumed either cooked or raw in relatively small
quantities as a side-dish or as a relish with staple foods mainly for their nutritional benefits.

Flower

Flower is the reproductive part of flowering plant which is used for reproduction and expressing
human filling or emotion value