Physiology of Growth and Development of Horticultural Crops

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Physiology of growth and development. 3. Plant growth hormones. 4. Floral initiation and induction. 5. Fruit drop. 6. Source - sink relationships in fruit trees. 7. Photoperiodism. 8. Special phenomena in horticultural crops. 9. Physiological disorders of fruit crops. 10. Canopy management. 11. Climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. 12. Growth analysis indices. 13. Vernalization: perception of cold stimulus. 14. Mechanisms of abscission and senescence of leaves. 15. Mineral nutrition and absorption in plants. 16. Mechanism of uptake of mineral nutrients by plants. 17. Physiological changes in horticultural plants due to pathogen. 18. Post-harvest treatment of fresh fruits and vegetables. 19. Secondary and micronutrients on fruit and vegetable quality and human nutrition. 20. Nutrition and post-harvest quality of horticultural crops. 21. Environmental impact on plant growth and development crop water relations. 22. How do materials pass through membranes? 23. Seed physiology. 24. Seed viability and vigour. 25. Stress physiology of horticultural crops.

India is the second largest producer of fruits with an annual production of 88.81 MT. The scenario of horticultural crops in India has become very encouraging. The percentage share of horticultural output in agriculture is very promising. However, our country still lag behind in the productivity of the majority of fruit crops which is a challenge to research workers in the view of the continuously increasing population. There are several reasons; primarily the lack of knowledge about the basic physiology of the crop which appears to be a fundamental reason for low productivity. Crop physiology is governed by changing climatic conditions in today’s scenario. Be it a student or horticulturist or researcher, he must be well versed with the basic plant metabolic processes to combat the biotic and abiotic stresses. The genesis of the idea led me inculcated the writing of this book, which would be of great help to students, researchers and horticulturists to gain an accurate and deep understanding about growth and development processes as well as phenomena regarding physiology of fruit crops. The various aspects if properly integrated with fruit science will augment the production system.