Few weeks ago, I was honored to be invited by the Green Thumb Stewards, an organization from Ateneo de Davao University Grade School. I was invited to discuss horticulture, my first love. My interest in plants brought me closer to nature, a foundation on my environmental advocacies.
While most people think that my education was in social or political sciences since I am inclined politically, given my social commentaries, actually I am a horticulturist by profession. I earned my degree in BS Agriculture Major in Horticulture specializing in Vegetables Crop Production and Management (CPM) in UP Los Baños more than a decade ago. I am also a proud alumnus of the UP Horticultural Society.
Allow me to share some highlights of our discussion with the Green Thumb Stewards about horticulture in general and ornamental horticulture in particular.
Horticulture basically is both an art and science of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, herbs and spices that are directly used by humans. It is also among the most ancient human practices and among the most necessary in modern times as described by the Goldman Laboratory, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
According to Britannica encyclopedia the word Horticulture can be traced to its Latin origins hortus which refers to ‘garden’ and colere which means ‘to cultivate’. Therefore, horticulture means to cultivate a garden.
There are several branches of horticulture, but for practicality we subdivide horticulture based on purpose: plants for food and plants for ornament.
Plants for food covers pomology, the study of fruits and nuts, and olericulture the study of herbaceous plants for kitchen. While plants for ornament covers landscape horticulture, a broad category that includes landscaping, lawn turf management with focus on nursery crops, while floriculture that deals with the production of flowers and ornamental plants; generally cut flowers, pot plants and greenery.
We discussed the common groups of horticultural crops: trees, shrubs, annuals, herbaceous, climbers and runners, succulents and cactus, bulbs, palms, ferns, cycads, aquatic plants, indoor plants and grasses.
I also shared about the two basic propagation methods of horticultural crop: sexual and asexual propagation. Crops derived from seeds and produced seedling refers to sexual propagation. While propagation through vegetative/ plant parts such as stem and leaf cuttings, rhizomes, tubers and corm refer to Asexual propagation. We have a good exchange of practical techniques in propagation from top-cuttings to several air-layering techniques.
We also shared the basics of crop care. Different groups of crops entail different care and management. For example, in the care of succulents and cactus family, we need to understand its origins as a dessert crop, thus more sunlight and less watering is needed. Many of the participants find connection in the common dilemma of people growing succulents and ending up placing them indoors and overwatering their beloved cute succulents.
I also shared one of the basic concepts in crop care, in particular the disease pyramid, which is basically a function of having a susceptible host/crop, virulent pathogen and favorable environment. As a general rule, the healthier the plant the less likelihood the disease can occur.
Ultimately, we discussed basic elements in landscaping. I also shared with them my personal bias on edible landscaping being a food security advocate. I concluded my discussion with a quote from Audrey Hepburn: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”.
As a horticulturist and a development worker, there is a greater need to till and sow the seeds for our future. We must also continue to address the question “for whom”, and always as our motto in UP Horticultural Society- Horticulture for the People!
Food, horticulture, plants
