Fundamentals of Horticulture

Horticulture is a science and technique of production, processing and merchandizing of fruits, vegetables, flowers, spices, plantations, medicinal and aromatic plants. Horticultural crops need intensive cultivation, requires large input of capital, labour and technology per unit area. India has witnessed voluminous increase in horticulture production over the last few years. Significant progress has been made in area expansion resulting in higher production. Over the last decade, the area under horticulture grew by about 2.7% per annum and annual production increased by 7.0%. Cultural operations like propagation, training, pruning and harvesting are skilled and specific to horticultural crops. India has diverse climates and soil for cultivation of horticulture crops providing many opportunities for the development of fruit industry but the greatest challenge in present is to produce sufficient fruit to feed the everincreasing human population. The book contains chapters on Introduction to Horticulture, PostHarvest Management, Seed Dormancy, Pruning and Training, Pollination in Agriculture and Horticulture, Soils, Fertilizers and Parthenocarpy, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Classification of Horticultural Crops and Impact of Environment, Preparation of Seed Bed/Nursery Bed, Plant Propagation, Sexual and Asexual Propagation, Irrigation in Horticultural Crops, Gardening Tools, Manure and Fertilizer for Different Crops, and Layout and Planting of Orchards. I have tried to keep the language as simple and straightforward as possible and consistent with accurate representation of the content. Every effort has been made to present the ideas in very easy and understandable language and the interests of each reader.