A Career In Horticulture

horticulture
Tony Jacowski asked:


Horticulture involves the knowledge of growing fruits, vegetables, garden plants and flowers. The location could be a small garden at home or may even be a part of the house. Some people learn horticulture to create a beautiful garden of their own as a hobby or way to make the home look more appealing.

-How To Become A Horticulturist?

Many universities and colleges offer certificates in horticulture. A certificate makes a business operation more credible. To be a horticulturist, you need to be knowledgeable in Chemistry, Botany, soil types, written and oral communication, plant pests and diseases and business management. The courses provide information on health benefits, food safety, gardening-techniques and ecologically sound lawns.

Job Opportunities

Professional Horticulturists can work in different areas such as:

-Production: Managing a landscape service, greenhouse, vegetable farm, orchard, flower or plant shop, garden center, nursery or processing firm.

-Landscape Design, Installation and Maintenance: Designing and planting plans with shrubs, trees, ground cover, turf grass and herbaceous ornaments.

-Marketing: Wholesale or retail sale of gardening supplies, seeds, processed or fresh vegetables, floral arrangements and house plants. You can manage the marketing for a government, private companies, chain stores or wholesale distributors.

-Research: You can work as a researcher to improve the yield and quality of vegetables, fruits, flowers and ornamental plants and develop methods for storing, handling and marketing them. You can specialize in plant nutrition, plant breeding, plant growth regulation with chemicals and similar interesting areas of plant research.

-Pest Management: After training, you can work with central and state regulatory agencies, processing corporations, large farm organizations, agricultural agents and even agricultural suppliers.

-Industry services and growing Horticultural Crops: Trained Horticulturists are employed in Seed Firms, pesticide material manufacturing, manufacturing of fertilizers, freezing and canning companies and landscape or farm equipment management.

-Inspection: Trained horticulturists are usually employed in government or private agencies as inspectors and to manage uniformity in the production and quality.

-Communication: Written collateral for agricultural or gardening magazines, television and radio and newspapers can be a rewarding field too.

Job Of A Horticulturist

- Plant preparation for retail and wholesale nurseries.

- Specialized plant production.

- Develop and manage outdoor spaces like resorts, hotels and sports complexes.

- Work for the park departments under the local authorities.

- Administer large department stores or businesses associated with the agriculture industry.

Horticulturists often work with town planners, landscape architects, engineers, and environmental conservationists. The horticulturist works towards building a better and beautiful environment and a higher quality of life through improvement, beautification and conservation.

Horticultural scientists or people with a university degree in Horticulture work for various agricultural research institutes, where they conduct research on vegetables, fruits, flowers and the grape and wine preparations in different rainfall regions. They are also involved in the marketing of horticultural products and agricultural extensions.

Job Market For The Horticulturist

With the emergence of a number of environmental issues, the job market has expanded for fruit, vegetable and environmental horticulturists, as extension specialists, research workers, teachers, scientists and professors. Horticulturists are employed as marketing managers, production superintendents, inventory controllers, landscape maintenance specialists, buyers, landscape supervisors, bedding plant producers, education coordinators and research assistants.



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Career Opportunities and Challenges in the Agriculture Biotechnology Industry

horticulture
Gitanjali Hazarika asked:


Because of our ever-increasing population that is predicted to reach eight billion by 2020, the need for food will remain a top priority, transcending all socio and geo-political boundaries. The increased demand for food will call on agriculture, specifically, to act as the biggest source of industry. And with the increased demand for foodstuff, better-quality yield and huge agricultural output will be required. (Though there has been vast improvement in the sector thanks to the improved quality of seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers.)

This is where the agriculture biotechnologist steps in. Agricultural biotechnologists are professionals who provide a set of tools, which, if incorporated suitably with other technologies, can be used for the sustainable development of agriculture and the food industry as a whole.

Scope of the Agri-Biotech Industry

With increased R&D efforts in the agri-biotech industry, the scope of agriculture-based biotech work has become tremendous. Agriculture biotechnologists’ roles are multifarious. From being people with strong scientific expertise to being good administrators and good marketers with sharp business acumens and strong communication skills, the career options for an agri-biotechnologist are vast. Choosing the right avenue is the main priority.

Nature of the Job

Today, with modern technologies like micro propagation which allows for the multiplication of virus-free plants and tissue cultures, agriculturists have successfully combated natural hindrances to productivity such soil imbalances, crop diseases, and genetic breeding. Therefore, the agriculture-based biotech industry needs people who are qualified in the fields of molecular biology, plant transformation and tissue cultures, biochemistry, plant genetics, pathology, entomology, and agronomy for trait evaluation and integration.

Career Options for Agri-Biotechnologists

The field of agriculture-based biotechnology is evolving each day, offering numerous career options. Besides employing people for research and development, the industry also caters to various other agri-biotech-related fields including horticulture, floriculture, dairying, poultry farming, and fishery. Agri-based biotechnologists can also sharpen their academic skills by working with food processing or post-harvest technology, better known as genetically modified (GM) technology.

Career Challenges in the Agri-Biotech Industry

With growing consciousness of the ills of chemically treated foodstuff, changes in approaches to farming are taking place all over the globe. The stage has been set for the advent of bio-chemicals and bio-insecticides, biofertilizers, and biofuels. Agriculture-biotechnology careers are never short of challenges, both natural and man-made. For instance, in the next two-and-a-half decades alone, the world must produce the same amount of food or more than what it produced in the last 10,000 years.

For a biotechnologist, the challenge does not end with producing sufficient amounts of foodstuff. The challenge lies not only in meeting requirements within deadlines but, at the same time, causing minimal harm to the earth. Agriculture biotechnologists have to combat odds like the depletion of precious top-soil at the rate of seven percent in 10 years in order to fulfill the increasing water requirements which will have doubled by that time.

Other Career Options

Several other career openings are available for agri-business graduates. From the more general opportunities within the agricultural and land-based sectors such as equine management, animal science, and horticulture, to global buying and trading of agricultural produce, the opportunities are vast for agriculture biotechnologists.



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Sustainable Horticulture Is Important for Everyone

horticulture
Jerry Cahill asked:


Sustainable Horticulture is increasingly important to everyone. This website contains articles related to sustaining our environment through sustaining our horticulture. It is through sustaining our home environment that we make a valuable contribution to sustaining much more.

We live in an increasingly urbanized world, where open or green space is becoming less common and more highly valued. Landscapes provide an extension of the livable environment where people interact with their world and each other. Unfortunately, many landscapes are neither well managed nor sustainable, with poor plant choices, site conditions, and little or no maintenance. A variety of problems make such places unhealthy or unsafe for plants, humans, and animals. For instance, invasive species are often planted in landscapes, where they out compete more beneficial species, reducing diversity and providing less food and habitat for other organisms.

Is your lawn and garden propped up through heavy chemical fertilization? This is not a sustainable situation. It is important for you to consider ways to improve the soil that supports both your lawn and garden. There are many commercial sources of better soil and compost that will help you achieve your goal. If you prefer to do it yourself, composting, worm beds, and other alternatives are available.

Do you have an urban garden? If so it is important that you know how to revitalize the soil through organic approaches. Keeping your soil alive keeps your garden sustainable.

In urban areas, heavy traffic, combined with a sea of concrete, leads to soil compaction, creating an environment where existing plants cannot obtain sufficient oxygen or water to survive and seedlings cannot germinate. Fertilizers and pesticides are often applied in excessive quantities, which can lead to such environmental disasters as eutrophication of water bodies, destruction of salmon habitat, and poisoning of a variety of organisms. Unsustainable landscapes may also require more frequent weeding, watering, pruning, and other high-maintenance activities to keep them functional.

Learn more about how soil compaction impacts your horticulture. Find out the truth about compost tea. Do you know if your garden shop is dispensing urban myths or factual information? Want to learn some great horticultural tips?

It is important to recognize and apply sustainable management practices as preferable alternatives to current practices. Sustainable or ecologically friendly landscapes, whether in public greenspaces or privately owned, consume less water, have reduced needs for fertilizer and pesticides, and avoid the use of non-native, invasive species.



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Landscape And Gardening Courses - Tips To Learn Horticulture

horticulture
Abhishek Agarwal asked:


If you desire of gaining knowledge about horticulture and if you are determined about it there are lot of knowledge you can achieve yourself without anyone helping you .You can get horticulture related knowledge through books

Irrespective of who the author of the book is, it will definitely have sufficient information about horticulture to start with. There are several institutions that provide licensed courses on cultivation of plants.

There may be some variation in degrees from one institution to another ,but usually the students of horticulture courses will be made to learn all about horticulture for which classes would be conducted and also will be subjected for practical’s where students will be required to get personally involved in the work.

The horticulture programs are designed in such a way so that it prepares the student who are graduates or event students who have just received the degree (high school or college or university). They are well prepared to pursue their careers as a landscapist which involves designing as well the up keeping of the gardening pursuits. This means, the maintenance and improvement of the new and already existing landscapes.

Here in both the situations the person can make money by taking it as a job or doing it as a business on contract basis.

Landscapes can also be re improved or the design can also be changed from time to time to match the present trend and contemporary designs.

There are different programs extended by horticulture courses. Amongst them are an associate’s degree, a common degree and a certificate course in producing an associate degree, a universal certificate, a certificate in production and installation and care.

Most of the horticulture courses place an important and special importance and significance on plant extension and breeding, the plant recognition, nursery, conservation culture, surface layer of ground containing a mat of grass and grass roots management, illness of plants and infections, the cultivation of trees for the production of timber and the designing, building and upkeep of landscapes.

Other classes may contain practice of woodwork, designing of gardens, scientific study of soil, scientific study of plants, and that studies of the principles of transmitting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc. and data processing.

Students who graduate may even be called for

A chemical applicator’s examination:

If you are expecting diploma which is something more than the level of education that college students are assumed to have attained; some educational institutions extend classes in the branch of architecture, dealing with the arrangement of land and buildings for human use and enjoyment, for which there is a Bachelor’s degree.

Graduates will also able to work towards a Graduate level, certificate course of study in designing of Landscape.

There are landscape gardening courses for study that are planned for both a person who pursues an activity in their spare time for pleasure and also for the experts.

Night classes are often Obtainable or accessible by means of a program of instructions designed primarily for adult students who participate part-time. A learner who is enrolled in an educational institution or university for horticulture are commonly individuals who have expressed a concern and he quality of having great facility and competence in field related with The cultivation of plants and all the plant life in particular.



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Learn All About Horticulture And What It Entails

horticulture
Peter Finch asked:


Classically evolved from the Latin words ‘hortus’ ( garden plant ) and ‘cultura’ ( culture ), horticulture is the culture of cultivating. But at the same time it is a huge field of study. Horticulture is heavily dependent on three broad areas of knowledge : Science, Business, & Art. An appropriate balance and interaction of these three components is necessary for success in Horticulture.

“Rare indeed are the fields that can claim such a dependence on all three broad areas of knowledge!” remarked Prof. Bailey L. H., the famous American Horticulture scholar. Horticulture involves the study of growing crops, plants, herbs, turfs, shrubs, trees, fruits, flowers, vegetables, grains, cereals, or anything that falls in this genre. It is a science of plant propagation and crop production. Involved are the topics of botany and agriculture that study physiology, biology and chemistry of plants and trees.

Subjects of genetic engineering and bio-technology falls into the same group as well. Crop reaping, storage, quality assurance, processing, maintenance and transportation too are included. The tricks and techniques of improving crop production, their quality, nutritional virtues, immunity to diseases is also covered in Horticulture. Not only this, horticulture also extends to the study of non-edible ornamental kind of plants.

Horticulture employs a wide range of tools and technologies. It is a scientific methodology of cultivation, so as to make the crops yield the desired quality. These scientific methods could be as simple as using tractors for farming to deriving fertilizers mixing complex chemicals.

An interesting point to note about horticulture is ones social environmental responsibility. Natural resources should be used sparingly, and should better be bred from their parent stock, whereever possible. Horticulture address these issues.

Types of Horticulture

- Amateur Horticulture: Amateur horticulture, as the name suggests, is an unprofessional sort of horticulture. It is just growing for ones own self, may be because of domestic cooking needs, or for the sake of ones interests and inclinations. It is a vocational horticulture.

- Commercial Horticulture: Commercial horticulture, is growing for others and earning living from that. It demands a due market knowledge, what consumers require, what are their tastes and preferences, what is available in market in abundance and what struggles scarcity. It is professional horticulture.

Areas of Study in Horticulture

1. Floriculture - dedicated to Flowers

A discipline of horticulture that is concerned with floral crops, is floriculture. It is about growing and selling flowers. Usually these flower-plants are herbacious and are planted in pots, trays, or hanging baskets. Flower-harvest is often seasonal, and the plants should properly be watered and prunned to bear the flowers. Some post-harvest treatments such as chemical treatments, storage, preservation and packaging, also be taken care of.

2. Olericulture - dedicated to Vegetables

It is a field of horticulture relevant to vegetables of all kinds. Some vegetables are eatable freshly cut, while others need to be cooked. Olericulture takes care of these all about vegetables.

3. Pomology - dedicated to Fruits

Latin word pomum, is an origin of the term pomology, which is branch of horticulture pertinent to all sorts of fruits.

4. Landscape horticulture - dedicated to Landscape Plants

Landscape plants, such as trees, plants, shrubs, turfs, herbaceous perennials etc. are studied under this category of horticulture.

5. Post-harvest physiology - dedicated to Post-harvest Jobs

Crops often ask for a special post-harvest attention, especially when not to be used immediately but to be preserved. The said field of horticulture is relevant to crops reaping, maintaining their quality, reducing spoilage etc.



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Selective Breeding

Selective breeding is a technique used in agriculture which aims to create a breed of plants that has desirable traits. The aim in selective breeding is to produce a higher yield of crops or to produce a good quality of crops. Some of the characteristics that are honed in selective breeding includes better color, improved blooms, good taste and tolerance to pest and extreme weather.

Selective breeding basically picks ups the good traits in a certain plant pollinated them for seed. Crops that are would be produced from the selected seed would then be used to create a full range of better plant production. Genetic principles are very important in studying and applying selective breeding in plants. It is a branch of applied genetics and the study of other branches of science including plant physiology, biochemistry and entomology are just some of the studies that can help in making selective breeding successful.

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Pruning

Pruning is a type of technique used in horticulture. It is often practiced in landscaping and gardening. Pruning is basically cutting off or removing unwanted parts of a tree. Aside from making a tree attractive to the eyes, pruning is also used to remove diseased part of a tree or a plant. Amenity trees, which are often used for decorating and aesthetic purposes, are often pruned to be able to achieve the desired shape or a look fitting to be displayed in urban settings or in a garden.

More than being a scientific technique, pruning is also considered as an art. Pruning is also used to maintain the health of a plant and to direct its growth. Advocates of pruning are also believed to give a tree a stronger structure. Although some agriculturist do not agree to use pruning techniques on trees because it “hurts” them, pruning or cutting off a large part of mature trees does not necessarily do damage to a tree.

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Hybridisation

Hybridisation is a breeding technique that is often used in plants. Hybridisation is done to enhance the look or quality of a certain agricultural product. For instance, if one flower has a characteristic that makes it look incredibly attractive and another flower is very famous for its fragrance, hybridisation experts can use each of the plant’s genetic make up and combine them to produce a flower that is both amazing in appearance and has a fantastic fragrance. Hybridisation simply takes the desirable characteristic of each plant and combine them to produce a better and improved breed of plant. It is basically rearranging the genes of plants and reproduce them.

Plants are used in hybridisation more than animals are. Cross pollination is one natural method of how plants employ hybridisation. Plants can go through the process of hybridisation with little effort and less work. This technique can actually be used in the improvement of seeds, fruits and vegetable for human consumption. They can also be used aesthetically in horticultural applications.

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Espalier

Espalier falls under the techniques of horticulture. It is the practice of growing trees with the means of grafting and pruning. This creates a unique two dimensional visual image. It can also be made into singular plane pattern that are often done with branches of trees. Such techniques are used for aesthetic purposes.

The Espalier technique is in existence since the Middles Ages and even has its roots during the time of the Ancient Egypt. This technique is used to beautify orchards of rich people. Trees are allowed to grown in courtyards to decorate its walls. Originally, the term Espalier is used to refer to the trellis that trees and plants grow in. But over the years, it has been used to refer to the technique of training trees to be grow in a certain pattern. Espalier techniques is often used in gardening and in decorating outdoor and indoor settings.

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Cultigen

A cultigen refers to a type of plants that are selected or altered by humans and are often use for commerce or in applications of agriculture, forestry and agriculture. Plants that do not fall under the Linnaean hierarchical classification falls under cultigen. Man made plants or what is techinically referred to as anthropogenic plants are classified accoridingly into what is called Cultigens Group of Cultivar-group.

Cultigen plants are often a result of plant breeding, selection of wild variants or abberant growth. Genetically modified agricultural plants also falls under this category. Graft-chimaeras is also one example of cultigen where tissues of different plants are mixed together to produce hybrid plants. The full list of cultigen plants are indicated in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. Most cultigens are grown in the wildlife and are cross breed without intention by over the course of time, with or without human intervention.

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