Horticulture is a branch of plant agriculture and it mainly deals with garden plants such as vegetables, fruits, and ornamental ones. It is very easy to start horticulture but gets quite intense to maintain to reap benefits. The scale of horticulture can fall somewhere between homegrown gardens and commercial fields. The success of horticulture depends on a few factors such as the weather, rain, soil quality, and terrain.
Horticulture is basically a blend of science and art, it requires years of practice growing plants in different environments to master it. All individual plants that are grown horticulturally require intense individual attention. So horticulture is for people with passion and patience to pursue it.
There are different types of horticulture, they are otherwise called as branches. Each one of these branches has a specific set of purpose and functions. The four different branches in horticulture are pomology, olericulture, floriculture, and landscape horticulture. Let’s look at each one of them in detail below:
- Pomology: Pomology is branch of horticulture that deals with fruits and nuts. They deal with the sowing, harvesting, processing and preserving succulent fruits and nuts. Different types of fruits can be harvested through pomology. Succulent and juicy fruits such as strawberries, grapes, mango, pineapple, and oranges are one type of fruits harvested through pomology. The other type of fruits that can be harvested is hard shelled nuts such as cashews and walnuts.
- Oreliculture: Olericulture deals with the growing of herbaceous plants mainly for cooking purposes. Some types of vegetables that can be grown in this branch of horticulture are a. Edible roots like carrot and beets, edible stem like asparagus, edible leaves like lettuce, edible flowers like cauliflower, fruits like tomatoes, and seeds like peas.
- Floriculture: Floriculture is the art and science of growing and nurturing flowers and some ornamental plants, greenery, and pot plants. Some examples of floriculture include growing tulips, roses, daffodils, pansies, bluebells, chrysanthemum, anthurium, carnation, and carnation.
- Arboriculture: Arboriculture is the growing and management of perennial trees, vines, shrubs, and other woody plants. Arboriculture is otherwise called as landscape horticulture. It is the art and science of knowing how these trees thrive under certain conditions and how well they adapt to the environment. They also include plants and lawn turf for landscape purposes.
Conclusion:
Horticulture has now become broadly recognized in our society. It not only is good for the environment but also helps humans stay fit. It is also labor intensive and highly beneficial to your pockets as well. It is necessary that you learn the branches of horticulture to take an informed decision as to what you would like to do. You have options from just creating a garden just for the sake of beauty and landscape or create a garden to implement the farm-to-table concept.
