Course Type: Open course
Course Category: Aided
Objectives:
- Understand the importance of horticulture in human welfare.
- Understand the propagation and cultural practices of useful vegetable, fruit and garden plants.
- Understand the impact of modern technologies in biology on horticultural plants.
- Understand the basic concepts of landscaping and garden designing.
- Inculcate interest in landscaping, gardening and flower and fruit culture.
HORTICULTURE (48 hrs)
Module 1: Introduction (10 hrs)
Introduction to horticulture: definition, history; classification of horticultural plants, disciplines of horticulture. Soil: formation, composition, types, texture, pH and conductivity. Garden tools and implements.
Preparation of nursery bed; manures and fertilizers - farm yard manure, compost, vermicompost, biofertilizers; chemical fertilizers - NPK; time and application of manures and fertilizers, foliar spray. Irrigation methods - surface, sub, drip and spray irrigations - advantages and disadvantages - periodicity of irrigation.
Module 2: Propagation of plants (10 hrs)
Propagation of horticultural plants - by seeds; seed development and viability, seed dormancy, seed health, seed testing and certification. Growing seedlings in indoor containers and field nurseries, seed bed preparation, seedling transplanting; advantages and disadvantages of seed propagation.
Vegetative propagation - organs used in propagation - natural and artificial vegetative propagation; methods - cutting, layering, grafting and budding; advantages and disadvantages of vegetative propagation; micropropagation.
Module 3: Gardening (10 hrs)
Gardening - ornamental gardens, indoor gardens, kitchen gardens- terrestrial and aquatic gardens - garden adornments; garden designing; garden components - lawns, shrubs and trees, borders, hedges, edges, drives, walks, topiary, trophy, rockery; famous gardens of India. Landscape architecture - home landscape design, urban planning, parks, landscaping and public buildings, industrial and
highway landscaping. Physical control of plant growth - training and pruning - selection of plant, bonsai containers and method of bonsai formation.
Module 4: Floriculture (6 hrs)
Introduction, commercial floriculture - jasmine, orchid, anthurium, rose, gladiolus; production of cut flowers, quality maintenance, packing, marketing. Flower arrangements - basic styles - upright and slanting - japanese ikebana, dry flower arrangement.
Module 5: Olericulture (4 hrs)
Olericulture - types of vegetable growing - home gardens and market gardens; cultivation practices of leafy vegetable (Amarathus), tuber (Potato), fruit (Tomato), flower (Cauliflower).
Module 6: Pomology (4 hrs)
Pomology - cultivation of fruit crops - mango, banana and pine apple - preparation of land, spacing, planting, irrigation, hormones, harvest and storage. Factors affecting duration of storage. Principles of preservation - temporary and permanent - agents for fruit preservation. Preparation of pickles, jams, jellies and squashes using locally available fruits.
Module 7: Gardening – additional features (4 hrs)
Garden friends - honey bees, ladybirds, frogs, spiders, earthworms, centipedes and millipedes. Garden foes - pests, pathogenic fungi, bacteria, virus. Control measures - pesticides and fungicides; neem tobacco decoction. Hazards of chemical pesticides; equipments used in controlling horticultural pests- sprayers, dusting equipments - sterilization, fumigation.
Weeds - annual, perennial; weed control - prevention, eradication - hand weeding, tillage, burning, mowing, biological control, use of herbicides - selective and non selective - mechanisms involved in herbicidal actions.
