Floriculture and Ornamental Plant Production
Floriculture and Ornamental Plant Production covers commercial flower crops, the operations that set quality, harvest stage and post-harvest care.
Crop groups
- Loose flowers for garlands and worship: marigold, jasmine (Jasminum sambac), chrysanthemum, crossandra.
- Cut flowers: rose, gerbera, carnation, chrysanthemum, tuberose, lilium; protected cultivation for export-grade stems.
- Ornamentals: foliage plants, palms, ferns, cacti and succulents, orchids; pot plants for the nursery trade.
Operations that drive quality
Pinching removes the apical bud to force branching in chrysanthemum and carnation; disbudding removes side buds for larger blooms in chrysanthemum and rose; de-suckering and de-eyeing control shoot number in rose; bending in rose redirects auxin and encourages bottom breaks. Blackout or lighting schedules use photoperiod to time flowering to a market date. Harvest cut flowers in the cool morning at the correct stage: rose when outer petals unfurl, gerbera when two outer disc rows show pollen, tuberose when lower florets open. Then pulse in a preservative, grade and cold-store at 2-4 C.
Worked example. Marigold at 45 cm x 30 cm: 0.45 x 0.30 = 0.135 m2; 10,000 / 0.135 = 74,074 plants/ha. At about 100 g of loose flowers per plant per season, that is roughly 7.4 t/ha, enough to plan garland supply. Reasoning: population x yield per plant gives total yield; always state the units.
Traps that cost marks
- Harvesting roses in the heat of the afternoon.
- Confusing pinching with disbudding.
- Calling jasmine a cut flower crop.
- Ignoring the day-length requirement of chrysanthemum when scheduling flowering.