The Plant Horticulture In Context

The many facets of horticulture have much in common, each being concerned with the growing of plants. Despite the wide range of the industry, embracing as it does activities from the preparation of a cricket square to the production of uniformly-sized cucumbers, there are common principles which guide the successful management of the plants involved. This chapter puts the industry, the plant, and ecology into perspective and looks forward to the more detailed explanations of the following chapters.

Horticulture may be described as the practice of growing plants in a relatively intensive manner This contrasts with agriculture which, in most Western European countries, relies on a high level of machinery use over an extensive area of land, consequently involving few people in the production process. However, the boundary between the two is far from clear, especially when considering large-scale vegetable production. Horticulture often involves the manipulation of plant material, e.g. by propagation (see Chapter 6), by changing the above-ground environment (see Chapter 5), or by changing the root environment There is a fundamental difference between production horticulture, whether producing plants themselves or plant products, and service horticulture, i.e. the development and upkeep of gardens and landscape for their amenity, cultural and recreational values. Where the tending of plants for leisure moves from being horticulture to countryside management is another moot point. In contrast, the change associated with replacing plants with alternative materials, as in the creation of artificial playing surfaces, tests what is meant by horticulture in a quite different way.

THE PLANT

There is a feature common to all these aspects of horticulture: the gardener or grower needs to know all the factors which may increase or decrease the plant's growth and development. The main aim of this book is to provide an understanding of how these factors contribute to the ideal performance of the plant in particular circumstances. In most cases this will mean optimum growth, as in the case of a salad crop such as lettuce. However, the aim may equally be restricted growth, as in the production of dwarf chrysanthemum pot plants or in the case of a lawn that requires frequent cutting. The main factors to be considered are summarized in Figure 1.1, which shows where in this book each is discussed.It must be stressed that the incorrect functioning of any one factor may result in undesired plant performance. It should also be understood that factors such as the soil conditions, which affect the underground parts of the plant, are just as important as those such as light, which affect the aerial parts.

A single plant growing in isolation with no competition is as unusual in horticulture as it is in nature. However, specimen plants such as leeks, marrows and potatoes, lovingly reared by enthusiasts looking for prizes in local shows, grow to enormous sizes when freed from competition.