What’s the Difference Between Horticulture and Other Plant Sciences? by Lucy Liu

We all know that horticulture is a major that works on the study of plants. The students in this field are required to study all the facts and characteristics of plants. That’s pretty much what we could learn from plant biology or some other kinds of botany classes. So how is horticulture different from other plant sciences?  First of all, horticulturists are like engineers that make a living by their knowledge about cultivating plants. It contains not only the study of plants, but biology, chemistry, genetics, designing, and even psychology in this field. Also, horticulture includes intensive production which mean it has more inputs than other plant science. Other than that, the study of horticulture can make the land area has higher value per unit. That can bring benefit for both farmers and their crops. And finally, in this field, timing of the production is critical. For example, people need a big amount of fresh rose on the valentine’s day. however, as we all know, plants are highly perishable, so in horticulture, we often use fresh rather than processed.

Horticulture focus on the cultivated plants which is different from botany. If you have the interest in study for plants but not sure which way to choose, try to take some basic classes for both of the fields and the these would help you no matter what’s your future decision and at the same time, you will know your preference more clearly.