HPC-20306 Physiology and Development of Plants in Horticulture

Course

Credits 6.00

Language of instruction:

English

Assumed knowledge on:

HPC-21306 Crop Ecology or HPC-23303 Quantitative Aspects of Crop Production, HPC-22803 Concepts in Environmental Plant Physiology

Continuation courses:

MSc spec. Greenhouse Horticulture in MPS-Plant Sciences

Contents:

Protected horticulture depends on modifying the physical environment of an enclosed space so as to improve the growth and quality of plants. The course comprises advanced plant physiology and developmental biology described in relation to the production of plants, cut flowers, fruits, etc under protected cultivation. The physiological content emphasizes plant responses to the environment, such as photosynthesis, temperature stress, water relations etc. The developmental content deals with plant propagation techniques, flower induction and development, plant morphological control etc.

Learning outcomes:

The learning outcomes of this course are focused on the physical principles underlying the environmental modification in an enclosed space, and why, in terms of plant environmental physiology and developmental biology, it is necessary. Students will be expected to able to demonstrate an understanding of the following:
- the economic and cultural factors and practices that distinguish horticulture from other forms of agriculture;
- the basic physical properties of greenhouses with respect to energy exchange with the external environment and with enclosed objects (eg plants), especially the radiative and latent heat fluxes, and the consequences for the ambient temperature in greenhouses;
- the basic requirements and properties of rooting substrates and the importance of plant mineral nutrition;
- the properties of black-bodies and the consequences this has for radiative energy exchange between plants and their environment;
- the basic principles of plant thermal biology;
- the origins and meaning of water potential in plants and their environment, the soil-plant-air continuum, and the flux of water through plants and its control by stomata and atmospheric water vapour concentration;
- the physiological and non-physiological determinants of leaf energy balance and their role in the modulation of plant temperature;
- the role of radiant energy in photosynthesis, and the basic principles of photosynthetic energy transduction and how this relates to the control of greenhouse lighting;
- photosynthetic gas exchange (CO2 fixation and water evaporation), its physiology, and its control by environmental management of the glasshouse;
- chlorophyll fluorescence, its physiology, and its application in phytomonitoring;
- the principles of plant development and flowering and the practical applications of these in production control;
- the physiology of periodic developmental phenomena in plants and their control and manipulation in protected systems;
- the consequences of the presence of periodic phenomena in control of production;
- the foundations of vegetative propagation, the role of developmental processes in vegetative propagation and their application in practice;
- the principles and practice of micro-propagation.

Activities:

- lectures;
- self study;
- practicals;
- excursion.

Examination:

- 25% of final mark is derived from the mark of the practical reports;
- 75% of final mark is obtained from a written examination.

Literature:

Atwell (ed.) 2001, Plants in Action, MacMillan Publ. Australia.