Agriculture horticulture garden plant natural in town landscape

Sweet corn

2009-12-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

Appropriate environment.
• mold mold doctor sticky sand. Doctor or mold sand.
• The abundance of high-volume organic matter not less than 1.5 percent phosphorus useful than 10 part per billion. And potassium exchange has at least 40 part per billion.
• drainage and good air transfer.
• next level soil depth from 25 to 30 cm.
• The value of the acid alkaline 5.5 to 6.8.
• the right temperature to grow from 24 to 35 degrees Celsius.
• regularly distributed rainfall 1000-1200 mm per year.

Selected species.
Production quality standards meet the market or to grow plants better suited to weathering.

Popular species planted.

Hybrid varieties.
• a popular cultivated species than hybrid open. Agricultural characteristics, including size, consistency and high sheath sheath height from the old days out and harvest some. Yield and higher quality than a half-breed open for industrial processing. Sheath and consumers live.
• Unable to keep seed varieties have to do it.
• popular varieties grown in Thailand are 2 types of sweet corn with genes Brittany.morris Total control of the sweet varieties include ATS -2 or Chu Kar 74 and sweet corn with genes g beehive reality control sweetness. species such as Chu Kar high 73 - and 10 Eagle Tab Matrix 2, etc., with a market share close to each other.
• Sweet corn should be two types of genes that have been planted in the area because of similar cross-species mix will make no sweet corn market decline - received.
• popular species planted. Seeds are yellow. Can be harvested when 18-20 days out, including some 50 percent.

Commitment.Us Open mixed. Agricultural inconsistent manner. Compared with hybrid varieties.
• to collect seed varieties have to be made by planting 2-3 models from other species no less than 300 meters, or left over from planting. Other species not less than 21 days and then selected a sheath style meets at least 200 species from the farm.
• popular varieties cultivated today are 1 species.

Agriculture

2008-07-01T09:26:00.001-07:00

Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants, animals and other life forms. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science.
Agriculture encompasses many subjects, including aquaculture, agronomy, animal husbandry, and horticulture. Each of these subjects can be further partitioned: for example, agronomy includes both sustainable agriculture and intensive farming, and animal husbandry includes ranching, herding, and intensive pig farming. Agricultural products include food (vegetables, fruits, and cereals), fibers (cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax), fuels (methane from biomass, ethanol, biodiesel), cut flowers, ornamental and nursery plants, tropical fish and birds for the pet trade, both legal and illegal drugs (biopharmaceuticals, tobacco, marijuana, opium, cocaine), and other useful materials such as resins. Recently, crops have been designed to produce plastic[1] as well as pharmaceuticals.The history of agriculture is a central element of human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Wealth-building and militaristic specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures are commonplace in agricultural and agro-industrial societies—when farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in the tribe/village/City-state/nation/empire were freed to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Jared Diamond, among others, has argued that the development of civilization required agriculture.
In 2007, an estimated 35 percent of the world's workers were employed in agriculture (from 42% in 1996). However, the relative significance of farming has dropped steadily since the beginning of industrialization, and in 2003 – for the first time in history – the services sector overtook agriculture as the economic sector employing the most people worldwide.Despite the fact that agriculture employs over one-third of the world's population, agricultural production accounts for less than five percent of the gross world product (an aggregate of all gross domestic products).

Agricultural science

2008-07-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. (Veterinary science, but not animal science, is often excluded from the definition.)

Organic horticulture

2008-06-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.

Horticulture

2008-06-28T06:18:00.001-07:00

Horticulture is the art and science of the cultivation of plants.
Horticulturists work and conduct research in the fields of plant propagation and cultivation, crop production, plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology. The work particularly involves fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs, and turf. Horticulturalists work to improve crop yield, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses.

2008-06-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

Agriculture

Agricultural science

Agricultural cooperative

Agricultural engineering

Agricultural machinery

Agricultural subsidy

Agricultural economics

Agricultural policy

Common Agricultural Policy

Agricultural revolution

Agricultural show

Agricultural aircraft

Agricultural Panel

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Agricultural education

List of agricultural machinery

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Agricultural chemistry

List of agricultural universities and colleges

Agricultural experiment station

Agricultural extension

Royal Agricultural Society

Agricultural University (Peshawar)

Ontario Agricultural College

Agricultural Research Service

Agricultural lime

International Fund for Agricultural Development

Agricultural research In Israel

Future of robotics

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University

American Agricultural Economy in the 1920s-1940

British Agricultural Revolution

Agricultural University of Cracow

Terrace (agriculture)

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

Royal Agricultural College

University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Pugets Sound Agricultural Company

Land reform

Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Kadoorie Agricultural High School

Bangladesh Agricultural University

Royal Cornwall Agricultural Show

Traction engine

Agricultural University of Hebei

Agricultural Act

Agricultural gang

University of Agricultural Sciences

Agricultural productivity

Agricultural biodiversity

Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

Scottish Agricultural College

Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University

Agricultural fencing

Natural landscaping

2008-05-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of plants, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, grass which are indigenous to the geographical area in which the garden is located, as well as rocks and boulders in place of groomed lawns and planned planting beds to blend residential or commercial property into the natural surroundings of the particular area.

2008-05-16T23:46:00.001-07:00

Landscaping

Natural landscaping

Energy-efficient landscaping

Landscape

Landscape art

Ornamental plant

Landscape architecture

The Landscaper Magazine

Home Depot Landscape Supply

Landscape archaeology

Landscape contracting

Flower garden

2008-05-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

A flower garden is a form of garden usually grown for decorative

purposes, centering primarily on the kinds of flowers produced by the plants involved. Because flowers bloom at varying times of the year, and some plants are annual, dying each winter, the design of flower gardens can be sophisticated, taking such matters into consideration to keep blooms, even of specific color combinations, consistent or present through varying seasons.

Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures, and fragances to create interest and delight the senses. Photo by Ashley Sheets, provided courtesy of Park Seed Company.
These have grown in complexity over the years, and are sometimes tied in function to other kinds of gardens, like knot gardens or herb gardens, many herbs also having decorative function, and some decorative flowers being edible.
One simpler solution to flower garden design, growing in popularity, is the pre-planned "wildflower" seed mix. Assortments of seeds are created which will create a bed that contains flowers of various blooming seasons, so that some portion of them should always be in bloom. The best mixtures even include combinations of perennial and biennials, which may not bloom until the following year, and also annuals that are "self-seeding", so they will return, creating a permanent flowerbed.
Another, even more recent trend is the "flower garden in a box", where the entire design of a flower garden is pre-packaged, with separate packets of each kind of flower, and a careful layout to be followed to create the proposed pattern of color in the garden-to-be.

Landscape garden

2008-05-16T23:41:00.000-07:00

The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design

style characteristic of the eighteenth century, particularly with the work of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. The term was not however used to any great extent during the eighteenth century. Its period of popularity was the nineteenth century at which time the classical style of serpentine curves and clumps had become unfashionable. In the twentieth century, the term 'landscape gardener' began to be used by garden contractors

Nursery (horticulture)

2008-05-16T23:35:00.003-07:00

A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size.

There are retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to other nurseries and to commercial landscape gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of institutions or private estates. Some retail and wholesale nurseries sell by mail.
Nurseries grow annuals, perennials, and woody plants (trees and shrubs). These have a variety of uses: decorative plants for flower gardening and landscaping, garden vegetable plants, and agricultural plants.
Nurseries often grow plants in a greenhouse, a building of glass or in plastic tunnels, designed to protect young plants from harsh weather (especially frost), while allowing access to light and ventilation. Modern greenhouses allow automated control of temperature, ventilation and light and semi-automated watering and feeding. Some also have fold-back roofs to allow "hardening-off" of plants without the need for manual transfer to outdoor beds.
Some nurseries specialize in one phase of the process: propagation, growing out, or retail sale; or in one type of plant: groundcovers, shade plants, fruit trees, or rock garden plants.
Nurseries remain highly labour-intensive. Although some processes have been mechanised and automated, others have not. It remains highly unlikely that all plants treated in the same way at the same time will arrive at the same condition together, so plant care requires observation, judgement and manual dexterity; selection for sale requires comparison and judgement. A UK nurseryman has estimated that manpower accounts for 70% of his production costs.
Business is highly seasonal, concentrated in spring and autumn. There is no guarantee that there will be demand for the product - this will be affected by temperature, drought, cheaper foreign competition, fashion, etc. A nursery carries these risks and fluctuations.
Annuals are sold in trays (undivided containers with multiple plants), flats (trays with built-in cells), peat pots, or plastic pots. Perennials and woody plants are sold either in pots, bare-root or balled and burlaped and in a variety of sizes, from liners to mature trees.
Plants may be propagated by seeds, but often desirable cultivars are propagated asexually by budding, grafting, layering, or other nursery techniques.

Organic horticulture

2008-05-16T23:35:00.001-07:00

Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables,

flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.
The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.

Bougainvillea

2008-05-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Bougainvillea is a genus of flowering plants native to South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina (Chubut Province). Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus. The name comes from Louis Antoine de Bougainville, an admiral in the French Navy who encountered the plant in Brazil in 1768 and first described it to Europeans.
They are thorny, woody, vines growing anywhere from 1-12 meters tall, scrambling over other plants with their hooked thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance that is easily left in the flesh of an unsuspecting victim. They are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4-13 cm long and 2-6 cm broad. The actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant, including pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white, or yellow. Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as "paper flower" because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene.
Bougainvillea are relatively pest-free plants, but may suffer from worms and aphids. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species also use them as food plants, for example the Giant Leopard Moth.

Cultivation and uses
Bougainvilleas are popular ornamental plants in most areas with warm climates, including Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, the Mediterranea region, the Caribbean, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, South Africa, and the United States in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and southern Texas, France - Greece - Turkey - Italy - Netherlands. Numerous cultivars and hybrids have been selected, including nearly thornless shrubs. Some Bougainvillea cultivars are sterile, and are propagated from cuttings.
Bougainvillea are rapid growing and flower all year in warm climates, especially when pinched or pruned. They grow best in moist fertile soil. Bloom cycles are typically four to six weeks. Bougainvillea grow best in very bright full sun and with frequent fertilization, but the plant requires little water to flower. As indoor houseplants in temperate regions, they can be kept small by bonsai techniques. If overwatered, Bougainvillea will not flower and may lose leaves or wilt, or even die from root decay.
Because of the aggressive growth of hardened thorns and prolific branches, this plant is ideal as a natural barrier for security applications.

Symbolism
Various species of bougainvillea are the official flowers of the island of Grenada, the island of Guam, of Lienchiang and Pingtung Counties in Taiwan; Ipoh, Malaysia; and of the cities of Tagbilaran, Philippines; Camarill, California; Laguna Niguel, California; and San Clemente, California.

Acacia

2008-04-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773.
Acacias are also known as thorntrees or wattles, including the yellow-fever acacia and umbrella acacias. There are roughly 1300 species of Acacia worldwide, about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm-temperate regions of both hemispheres, including Africa, southern Asia, and the Americas.

Organic horticulture

2008-04-28T15:02:00.000-07:00

Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heritage-species preservation.
The Latin words hortus (garden plant) and cultura (culture) together form horticulture, classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. Horticulture is also sometimes defined simply as “agriculture minus the plough (or plow).” Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener’s cultivation tools, or of small machine tools like rotary tillers.

Fertilizer

2008-04-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Fertilizers (also spelled fertilisers) are compounds given to plants to promote growth; they are usually applied either through the soil, for uptake by plant roots, or by foliar feeding, for uptake through leaves. Fertilizers can be organic (composed of organic matter), or inorganic (made of simple, inorganic chemicals or minerals). They can be naturally occurring compounds such as peat or mineral deposits, or manufactured through natural processes (such as composting) or chemical processes (such as the Haber process).
They typically provide, in varying proportions, the three major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium: N-P-K), the secondary plant nutrients (calcium, sulfur, magnesium), and sometimes trace elements (or micronutrients) with a role in plant nutrition: boron, chlorine, manganese, iron, zinc, copper, and molybdenum.
Both organic and inorganic fertilizers were called "manures" derived from the French expression for manual tillage, but this term is now mostly restricted to organic manure.
Though nitrogen is plentiful in the earth's atmosphere, relatively few plants engage in nitrogen fixation (conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to a biologically useful form). Most plants thus require nitrogen compounds to be present in the soil in which they grow.

Arboriculture

2008-04-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Arboriculture is the cultivation of trees and shrubs. The discipline includes the study of how they grow and respond to cultural practices and the environment as well as aspects of cultivation such as selection, planting, care, and removal.
The purpose is generally to manage amenity trees. That is trees where their value to the landscape is greater than that of their wood content. Trees offer environmental benefits as well as cultural, heritage and habitat for fauna. The combined value including aesthetics exceeds the value of a trees worth from a forestry wood perspective. Amenity trees are usually in a garden or urban setting, and arboriculture is the management of them for plant health and longevity, pest and pathogen resistance, risk management and ornamental or aesthetic reasons. In this, it needs to be distinguished from forestry, which is the commercial production and use of timber and other forest products from plantations and forests. Some definitions of the term arboriculture extend it only to the care of trees. "Arboriculture" is not synonymous with Arborsculpture.

The Beauty Of Roses

2007-12-27T02:46:00.001-08:00

Roses are probably one of the most prized flowers in a garden. There are so many types of roses that one could plant acres and acres of them and each rosebush could bear a different type of flower. The beauty and the fragrance of roses have been celebrated for many centuries, and they still hold a high stature in flower gardening today.

You have several choices to make if you are considering planting and growing roses. Firstly , you want to consider the climate in the area where you live. Roses grow the best in climates where temperatures never get too extreme either way, and they prefer soil that drains well. Rosebushes are thirsty plants too, and she welcomes fairly long rainy seasons. If you live in an area which is hot and dry most of the time, try to find roses that have been bred to better withstand this type of dry climate. Rose breeders are constantly doing research to create hardier plants; roses that can withstand very cold or very hot climates.

Once you've found the type of rose that grows best in your area, then you will want to decide on color, scent, size, etc. There are some roses that have been bred with a focus on beauty, and they may not have strong scent as some others roses. Other types of roses give off such a strong scent that they can saturate your entire yard with their sweet rose fragrance. It is just a matter of preference, but most rose gardeners try to find something somewhere in the middle.

The beauty of roses is that you have so many colors from which to choose from that you are guaranteed to find exactly what you are looking for. The right choice of rose will accentuate your yard and home in a beautiful way that one can only imagine.

abelia

2007-09-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Abelia is a genus of about 15-30 species and many hybrids in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, in the part of that family split off by some authors in the segregate family Linnaeaceae. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group considers Linnaeaceae to encompass such genera as Linnaea, Abelia, Dipelta, Kolkwitzia, and Zabelia.

Abelias are shrubs from 1-6 m tall, native to eastern Asia (Japan west to the Himalaya) and southern North America (Mexico); the species from warm climates are evergreen, and colder climate species deciduous. The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three, ovate, glossy, dark green, 1.5-8 cm long, turning purplish-bronze to red in autumn in the deciduous species. The flowers appear in the upper leaf axils and stem ends, 1-8 together in a short cyme; they are pendulous, white to pink, bell-shaped with a five-lobed corolla, 1-5 cm long, and usually scented. Flowering continues over a long and continuous late spring to fall period

Sod

2007-08-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of this material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns. However, in British English such material is more usually known as turf, and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultural senses (for example for turf when ploughed), or avoided altogether, due to the alternative offensive meaning of the word "sod". Sod (or turf) for lawns is grown on specialist farms. It is usually grown locally to avoid long transport and drying out and heat buildup of the product. It is sold to landscapers, home builders or home owners who use it to establish a lawn quickly and avoid soil erosion. The farms that produce this grass may have many varieties of grass grown in one location to best suit the consumer's use and preference of appearance. It is usually harvested 10 to 18 months after planting. On the farm it undergoes fertilization, frequent watering, frequent mowing and subsequent vacuuming to remove the clippings. It is harvested using specialized equipment, precision cut to standardized sizes. Sod is typically harvested in small square slabs, rolled rectangles, or large 4-foot wide rolls. Some large sod farms may export internationally. Because of the product's short life after harvest, the sod may be washed clean of the soil down to the bare roots (or sprigs) which makes shipping lighter and cheaper. Sod can be used to repair a small area of lawn that has died.

Shrub

2007-08-06T06:19:00.000-07:00

A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience. Small, low shrubs such as lavender, periwinkle and thyme are often termed subshrubs.An area of cultivated shrubs in a park or garden is known as a shrubbery. When clipped as topiary, shrubs generally have dense foliage and many small leafy branches growing close together. Many shrubs respond well to renewal pruning, in which hard cutting back to a 'stool' results in long new stems known as "canes". Other shrubs respond better to selective pruning to reveal their structure and character.Shrubs in common garden practice are generally broad-leaved plants, though some smaller conifers such as Mountain Pine and Common Juniper are also shrubby in structure. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen.

Tree

2007-08-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance.A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to 6 m; some authors set a minimum of 10 cm trunk diameter (30 cm girth).Woody plants that do not meet these definitions by having multiple stems and/or small size, are called shrubs. Compared with most other plants, trees are long-lived, some of them getting to be several thousand years old and growing to up to 115 m (375 ft) high.Trees are an important component of the natural landscape because of their prevention of erosion and the provision of a specific weather-sheltered ecosystem in and under their foliage. Trees have also been found to play an important role in producing oxygen and reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as well as moderating ground temperatures. They are also significant elements in landscaping and agriculture, both for their aesthetic appeal and their orchard crops (such as apples). Wood from trees is a common building material. Trees also play an intimate role in many of the world's mythologies.

Flower

2007-08-06T06:05:00.000-07:00

A flower, also known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Magnoliophyta, also called angiosperms). The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds. The process begins with pollination, is followed by fertilization, leading to the formation and dispersal of the seeds. For the higher plants, seeds are the next generation, and serve as the primary means by which individuals of a species are dispersed across the landscape. The grouping of flowers on a plant are called the inflorescence.In addition to serving as the reproductive organs of flowering plants, flowers have long been admired and used by humans, mainly to beautify their environment but also as a source of food.

Vegetable

2007-08-06T06:01:00.000-07:00

The term "vegetable" generally means the edible parts of plants. The definition of the word is traditional rather than scientific however, therefore the usage is somewhat arbitrary and subjective, as it is determined by individual cultural customs of food selection and food preparation.Generally speaking, a herbaceous plant or plant part which is regularly eaten as unsweetened or salted food by humans is considered to be a vegetable. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological kingdom Fungi, are also generally considered to be vegetables, at least in the retail industry.Nuts, seeds, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits are usually not considered to be vegetables, even though all of them are edible parts of plants.In general, vegetables are regarded by cooks as being suitable for savory or salted dishes, rather than sweet dishes, although there are many exceptions, such as pumpkin pie.Some vegetables, such as carrots, bell peppers (or Capsicum as they are known in Australia) and celery, are eaten either raw or cooked; while others, such as potato, are traditionally eaten only when cooked.

Nut (fruit)

2007-08-06T05:59:00.000-07:00

Nut is a general term for the dry seed or fruit of some plants. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts. Nuts are an important source of nutrition for both humans and wildlife.
All nuts are seeds, but not all seeds are nuts. Nuts are both the seed and the fruit, and cannot be separated. Seeds come from fruit, and can be removed from the fruit, like almonds, cashews and pistachios, which were once inside fruit.

Berry

2007-08-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Several types of "berries" from the market.

The term berry, in common parlance and in cuisine, refers generically to any small, edible fruit with multiple seeds. Aggregate fruits such as the blackberry, the raspberry, and the boysenberry are also berries in this sense, but not the botanical.These fruits tend to be small, sweet, juicy, and of a bright color contrasting with their background to make them more attractive to animals that eat them, thus dispersing the seeds of the plant.As berry colors derive from natural pigments synthesized by the plant, a special field of health research has focused on the anti-disease properties of pigmented polyphenols, such as flavonoids, anthocyanins, and tannins among other phytochemicals localized mainly in berry peels (skins) and seeds. Related to the biological properties of berry pigments is antioxidant ability for which berries are notable due to their relatively high oxygen radical absorbance capacity ("ORAC") among plant foods. Together with good nutrient content, ORAC distinguishes several berries within a new category of functional foods called "superfruits", a rapidly growing multi-billion dollar industry which began in 2005.

Fruit

2007-08-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Fruit stall in Barcelona, Spain.

The term fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants disseminate seeds. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which include plums, apples and oranges. However, a great many common vegetables, as well as nuts and grains, are the fruit of the plant species they come from. No single terminology really fits the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits. The cuisine terminology for fruits is inexact and will remain so. The term false fruit (pseudocarp, accessory fruit) is sometimes applied to a fruit like the fig (a multiple-accessory fruit; see below) or to a plant structure that resembles a fruit but is not derived from a flower or flowers. Some gymnosperms, such as yew, have fleshy arils that resemble fruits and some junipers have berry-like, fleshy cones. The term "fruit" has also been inaccurately applied to the seed-containing female cones of many conifers.With most fruits pollination is a vital part of fruit culture, and the lack of knowledge of pollinators and pollenizers can contribute to poor crops or poor quality crops. In a few species, the fruit may develop in the absence of pollination/fertilization, a process known as parthenocarpy. Such fruits are seedless. A plant that does not produce fruit is known as acarpous, meaning "without fruit".

Plant breeding

2007-08-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Plant breeding

Plant breeding is the purposeful manipulation of plant species in order to create desired genotypes and phenotypes for specific purposes. This manipulation involves either controlled pollination, genetic engineering, or both, followed by artificial selection of progeny. Plant breeding often, but not always, leads to plant domestication.

Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years, since near the beginning of human civilization. It is now practiced worldwide by government institutions and commercial enterprises. International development agencies believe that breeding new crops is important for ensuring food security and developing practices through the development of crops suitable for their environment

Plant propagation

2007-08-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Plant propagation

Plant propagation is the process of artificially or naturally propagating (distributing or spreading) plants.

Sexual propagation (seed)

Seeds and spores can be used for reproduction. Seeds are typically produced from sexual reproduction within a species, since genetic recombination has occurred plants grown from seed may have different characteristics to its parents. Some species produce seed that requires special conditions to germinate like cold treatment. The seed of many Australian plants and plants from southern Africa and the American west require smoke or fire to germinate. Some plant species, including many trees do not produce seed until they reach maturity, which may take many years. Seed can be difficult to acquire and some plants do not produce seed at all.See germination for fuller discussion.

Asexual propagation

Plants have a number of mechanisms for asexual or vegetative reproduction. Some of these have been taken advantage of by horticulturists and gardeners to multiply or clone plants rapidly. People also use methods that plants do not use, such as tissue culture and grafting. Plants are produced using material from a single parent and as such there is no exchange of genetic material, therefore vegetative propagation methods almost always produces plants that are identical to the parent. Vegetative reproduction uses vegetative plants parts or roots, stems and leaves. Therefore, propagation via asexual seeds or apomixis is asexual reproduction but not vegetative propagation.

2007-08-06T04:38:00.000-07:00