We shall discuss how technology is being used in the gardening industry. Gardening has many benefits to a person’s life. It can beautify his home. It can be a good source of food for his immediate consumption. It could be source of recreation, a past time or a stress-reliever for him.
Others value gardening so much because it could foster friendship with their neighbors, a good avenue for meaningful conversation. While others, they find gardening to be a good means of exercise owing to the physical works that it requires.
How does gardening come about?
Gardening dates back to the time when man learned how to plant seeds to grow food. Yes, the first purpose of gardening was for the production of food. Man was too preoccupied with addressing their hunger than to beautify his surroundings.
With the growing human population as against the scarcity of resources, primarily food, gardening has been a significant contributor in addressing this problem. Large scale gardening would mean large scale production of plants and its produce.
It would also mean a large scale of cultivators to take care of the plants, soil and so many factors that can affect the status of the gardening. This kind of operation would entail so much human intervention, hence, greater need of workers resulting to greater expenses.
How technology is being used in the gardening industry?
The proponents of gardening industry had reduced that large scale expenses by utilizing technology to its operation. The areas covered with the use of technology ranges from monitoring the climate, utilizing tools similarly employed by weather stations.
They monitor weather conditions so as to know whether the same could immensely affect the plants’ growth or whether they can water the plants using robotic sprinklers to using drones to monitor the entirety of the garden for diseases, pest or animal attacks.
Other tools are used to detect the moisture content of a certain time in order to adjust the amount of heat that can be applied to the garden using led lights or other gadgets for photosynthesis.
Modern technology used in horticulture
Horticulture is a branch of science of agriculture which deals with the cultivation of ornamental plants, vegetables, fruit bearing, herbs, spices and other plants that can be used directly by man.
As horticulture has gained importance in alleviating man’s dependence to market supply, people are employing very useful technology to improve its produce despite limitations of resources. One of the best technologies adopted today is the used of urban gardening.
An example of this is the vertical gardening. This method used the walls of the house, gardens are built vertically parallel and along the heights of the walls. This is very ingenious technology. Water sprinklers are installed along the top line and it flows down to the bottom.
Hydroponics
Another urban gardening technology is the use of hydroponics system. In urban areas where the quality of soil essential for gardening is absent, the water will answer for its scarcity.
Hydroponics employs water instead of soil, as the base of growing plants. The water solvent shall be mixed with mineral nutrient solution. This liquid solution will provide the nutrients, oxygen, mineral that the plants need for its optimal growth.
What is good in this technology is the result can be adjusted by just controlling the quality of the liquid solution. Today, urban horticulture is very prevalent in so many communities around the world.
Advancement in horticulture
Fortunately, horticulture is one of the areas where technology is richly applied. The latest advancement in horticulture is the use of computer-based sensory and control equipment to enhance and control the growth of plants.
One of these latest breakthrough is the aeroponics. In aeroponics, plants is cultivated under a controlled condition, a small mist of nutrient solution is sprayed to the plant’s roots periodically through a nozzle machine, as a replacement for soil.
During the cultivation process, several factors can be controlled and recorded like the humidity, temperature, light intensity, nutrient -solution level, ph level, CO2 concentration, and others which are essential for the growth of the plants. At the very earliest opportunity, a defect on the growth can be detected.
Therefore, in effect, the several parameters that are essential to the growth of the plants can be readily correlated with the data introduced by the operator or horticulturist.
There is complete control on the part in growing the plants to its desired result. This is just one of the latest of the wealth of advancement in horticulture, as this industry is viewed as high yielding and profitable industry.
What technology is used in gardening?
There are so many technologies used in gardening. Some of the very basic and commonly used ones are the use of robotic machines to do the once manual works, that is the water sprinklers employing timed-remote controlled enablers.
Other technology that is commonly used in the gardening is the use of computer – sensory based equipment. In the same manner, they function based on the variation from standards set by the gardener in his garden, like the amount of heat or moisture which are very essential to the growth of a specific kind.
These machines will automatically adjust or trigger other equipment or feed information to the gardener regarding the deviations from the standard set in the garden.
In other gardens, some gardener utilize drones with videos and sensor to determine the areas where it plants are showing problematic growth. These pieces of devices are very helpful in that regard.
What is technology gardening?
Technology gardening must refer to indoor gardening, where people can readily grow their plants and produced at the minimal space and resources. We usually consider soil as the most important resources of gardening.
However, in indoor gardening–a smart gardening type of urban gardening–we are addressing the absence of good garden soil in an urban city setting.
Thus, technology gardening could only be the types of hydroponics where an aqueous solution instead of soil is used to control the growth of plants.
Aeroponics is also technology gardening for it addressed the scarcity of soil in urban setting by introducing mist of nutrient-solution periodically through a remote-controlled or sensor-controlled machine to regulate the growth of plants.
Another form of technology gardening is the vertical gardening. Typically, this may reduce the dependence to space and the reduction of water consumption.
It will utilize the space of house walls and the principle of gravity in delivering water to the rest of the plants at the bottom.
How does technology help in the field of horticultural production?
In one area of horticulture production, it is very important to consider the type of plant to be planted, and the results intended to produce. There are plants which are very sensitive to changes in temperature.
Indeed, one of the factors very highly to consider is the climate of the area where one intends to place his garden.
It is very important to determine the temperature of such place not only for a few months for the entire period or the lifespan of the plants where it can produce fruits or it can regenerate to give the desired produce periodically.
There are plants which will last for decades. There are plants which only last for months. The most important factor is that these plants can adapt to temperature changes.
They are very sensitive to shifts in temperatures. Some plants at colder temperature cannot produce fruits while some will not regenerate at warmer temperature.
It is very important then to employ the most accurate technology that could predict or estimate the likely climate of such geographical area to sustain the operation of such intended horticulture production.
Are there horticulture techniques?
The basic techniques in horticulture that I can think of, and as I have used it too in my gardening back home is the propagation techniques. Propagation have two methods of cultivating and growing plants, that is sexually and asexually.
Sexually is the easiest and traditional method of introducing seeds. However, this method is costly and takes a lot of time to produce the end result.
In asexual method, propagation is done through the use of special vegetative structures of the plant, like for tubers. These can be done also by cutting and grafting.
My favorite horticulture technique is the marcotting technique. This is a very fast yielding and the least expensive. We just scale the tissue covering on a part of the mature stem of the plant.
You can do several stems in one plant at the same time, then cover those scaled stems with plastic cover together in it a wet compost soil.
In a few days or weeks, roots will generate inside the covered stems, more than enough to sustain that stem for a new life of its own. It is very effective.
There are other techniques employed in horticulture like the urban gardening techniques and other large scale horticulture methodologies.
What is landscape horticulture?
Landscape is the art of the beautification of one’s place through the use of architectural designs with the use of plants.
It is a branch of horticulture which uses ornamental plants to produce that picturesque effect that will suit the client’s need.
There are two procedures in landscape horticulture. The first procedure is the laying of architectural designs outdoor and may be indoor, when it is ready. Then, the next procedure will follow which is the placing of appropriate plants for such design.
There are several purposes of landscape horticulture but quite notable are for beautification purposes. It naturally gives life to the place. It radiates silence throughout the place.
Other important purpose is that it serves as a security to health and environment. The plants are the main source of oxygen, and they also are the best retainers of carbon dioxide and dust.
They help create this greenhouse effect which is a deterrent to the formation of black-hole to our ozone layer. This is an environment-friendly approach in horticulture technology.
Conclusion
Technology in horticulture is very essential to address the scarcity of space and resources as the population grows endlessly. Horticulturist must adapt to the changing times.
He cannot be forever dependent to the traditional method of gardening as the need for food is high but the supply are low. That is why urban gardening is very important because it could successfully address a significant portion of the population’s need for food if done correctly and properly.
With the right support and education from the state to its citizens, especially in the urban areas, urban gardening can flourish and sustain each individual’s needs, even their neighbors can benefit too.
Technology gardening is smart gardening. We do not need large space or good soil to produce good plants for food, we just need the right information about the available technology to execute such technique to sustain a better future in terms of food supply.
