Horticulture and Floriculture
Horticulture and floriculture cover fruit, vegetable, flower, plantation, and spice crops. The exam tests propagation, orchard layout, training and pruning, and Tamil Nadu crop examples.
Classification and propagation
Horticulture branches include pomology (fruits), olericulture (vegetables), floriculture (flowers), plantation crops, and spices. Sexual propagation uses seeds and gives variability; asexual propagation gives true-to-type plants. Methods include cutting, layering, grafting, budding, suckers, and tissue culture. Grafting joins a scion to a rootstock; budding inserts a bud into rootstock bark. Rootstocks can provide vigour control, soil adaptation, or disease resistance.
Orchard management
Square, rectangular, hexagonal, and quincunx systems arrange trees. Plant population per hectare = 10,000 ÷ (row spacing × plant spacing in metres). Training shapes the plant; pruning removes unwanted growth and improves light. Pinching and disbudding can increase flower size or number. Tamil Nadu examples include mango, banana, coconut, jasmine, tuberose, and chrysanthemum.
Worked example
A mango orchard is planted at 3 m × 3 m. Area per tree = 9 m². Trees per hectare = 10,000 ÷ 9 = 1,111. If 5% of the area is used for paths, the plantable area is 9,500 m² and the number is about 1,055 trees; state the assumption.
Traps that cost marks
Grafting and budding are not the same. A seed-propagated fruit tree is not true to type. Papaya is dioecious in many varieties; do not assume every plant bears fruit. Pinching is not the same as pruning. Climacteric and non-climacteric fruits differ in ripening behaviour.