Basic knowledge in Agriculture #31

Source: flyermaker

What do you understand by horticulture?

Horticulture is generally the science and art put into the practices of growing vegetables, flowers and fruit plants. It is more intensive and thorough compared to normal agriculture.
To others horticulture might be the cultivation of a garden of flowers. But it is part of the culture as it
Involves growing of flowers too (floriculture)
Involves growing of vegetables (olericulture)
And it involves the growing of fruit trees (pomoculture)

Horticulture practices

These are practices that take place during the cultivation of horticultural crops. Sequentially, they include:

• Soil management: this includes working on the land and soil that will be used in growing the crops.
• Propagation: after sorting the soil, the mode nof propagating the crops follews; and this could be sexual or asexual.
• Planting and spacing: after deciding on the later, it is left to plant the crops while taking note of the spacing and amount of seeds.
• Irrigation: getting a proper system of irrigating the grown crops should be taken into thorough concentration. Proper amount of water should be made available for the veggies and flowers
• Fertilization: this could be organic or inorganic.
  Growth management: this involves manually regulating the growth of the plants by pruning them; this allows free air movement and height management.
• Harvesting: unlike other crops (tubers, grains) the plants grown in horticultural practice are carefully harvested. The vegetables and fruits are harvested in a way that prevents their damage.

Discuss on the problems encountered in horticulture and solutions to these.

In agriculture generally, problems would definitely arise in the cultivation of plant crops and fortunately and over the years, there have been ways to tackle this problems.
In horticulture, the problems and solutions include:

1. Soil degradation: this could be as a result of leaching, erosion and excessive use of chemicals. The solution to this is practicing crop rotation and use of organic manures.
2. Pests and diseases: crop pests would cause diseases and damages to crops. This is undesirable and could be curbed with the use of pesticides and insecticides.
3. Climate conditions: the state of the weather and atmosphere would definitely affect the yield and growth of crops. Extreme hotness or coldness of the climate would not be favourable to the horticultural crops; solution to this is practicing techniques on the crops that help them adapt to certain climatic conditions.

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