What is Horticulture? Water Management for UK Horticulture Businesses
Horticulture feeds the UK. It supplies the vegetables, fruits, herbs, and ornamental plants that fill supermarket shelves, garden centres, and green spaces across the country. It supports food security, contributes billions to the UK economy, and underpins an industry that ranges from small family-run market gardens to vast commercial greenhouse operations covering hundreds of hectares. Yet horticulture is also one of the most water-intensive sectors in UK agriculture, and the pressure on water resources available to UK growers is intensifying every year.
For commercial horticultural operations, managing irrigation water reliably and cost-effectively is as important as managing soil, pests, and growing environment conditions. Many of the UK's most productive growing regions sit in the driest parts of the country, where abstraction licence pressure, seasonal drought restrictions, and rising mains water costs make on-site rainwater harvesting and irrigation storage not just useful but operationally essential. This guide explains what horticulture is, how the sector works, and how UK growers are solving their water management challenges with correctly specified on-site storage tank systems.
What is Horticulture?
Horticulture is the science and art of cultivating plants for food, medicine, and aesthetic purposes. It encompasses the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, trees, shrubs, turf, and landscape plants across a wide range of growing environments, from open field production and protected greenhouse growing to urban green spaces, nurseries, and private gardens.
The word horticulture comes from the Latin hortus, meaning garden, and cultura, meaning cultivation. Horticulture is the science of growing plants in a managed environment, applying principles of plant science, soil management, controlled environments, pest control, and plant breeding to optimise the yield, quality, and appearance of cultivated plants.
Horticulture is distinct from general agriculture in both its focus and its scale of operation. While general agriculture typically involves large-scale production of staple crops such as wheat, barley, and oilseed rape, horticulture focuses on higher-value crops including fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamental plants, often grown in more intensive, specialist conditions. The two disciplines overlap in areas such as crop rotation, soil management, and integrated pest management, but horticulture is generally considered to require a higher degree of specialist skill and closer attention to individual plants and growing conditions.
The Royal Horticultural Society describes horticulture as combining scientific understanding with practical skill in a discipline that is as much a science and practice as it is a science and art. A skilled horticulturist draws on plant science, ecology, soil science, and environmental management to create the conditions in which cultivated plants thrive and produce to their full potential.
The Main Branches of Horticulture
Horticulture is a broad discipline with several distinct branches, each focused on a different category of horticultural plants or growing purpose.
Pomology
Pomology is the branch of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of fruit plants including apples, pears, plums, cherries, soft fruits such as strawberries and raspberries, and other growing fruits. Pomologists focus on plant selection, grafting, pruning, and harvest management to maximise fruit yield and quality. UK pomology is particularly associated with apple and pear orchards in counties such as Kent, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire.
Olericulture
Olericulture is the branch of horticulture focused on the cultivation of vegetable crops for commercial production and food supply. It covers a wide range of vegetables and ornamental plants grown for their edible parts, from leafy greens and root vegetables to legumes and brassicas. Olericulture is central to UK food security and vegetable production, with major growing regions concentrated in Lincolnshire, East Anglia, and the Vale of Evesham.
Floriculture
Floriculture is the branch of horticulture concerned with the cultivation of flowering plants and bedding plants for commercial sale and landscape use. It covers cut flowers, potted plants, and flowers and ornamental plants grown for garden retail and landscape planting. Commercial floriculture in the UK includes both outdoor field production and protected greenhouse production, with significant operations in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and the Dutch-influenced glasshouse industry concentrated in the south-east.
Landscape Horticulture
Landscape horticulture covers the design, installation, and maintenance of plants for the landscape, including garden plants, plants for the landscape in public and commercial spaces, turf management, shrub cultivation, and urban greening. Landscape horticulturists work across domestic gardens, public parks, sports grounds, highway verges, and commercial property developments.
Arboriculture
Arboriculture is the branch of horticulture focused on the cultivation and maintenance of individual trees and woody plants in urban and managed landscapes. Arboriculturists carry out tree planting, pruning, maintenance of plants, disease management, and tree safety assessments across parks, streets, and private estates.
What Does a Horticulturist Do?
A horticulturist applies the principles of plant science and cultivation to grow horticultural plants and crops to the highest possible standard of quality and yield. The day-to-day work of a horticulturist covers a wide range of horticultural practices depending on the branch and the growing environment.
Plant cultivation begins with plant selection, choosing varieties suited to the growing environment, the soil type, the climate, and the intended market. Soil management, including fertility management, drainage improvement, and pH adjustment, creates the growing conditions in which crops thrive. Crop rotation is used to maintain soil health and reduce disease and pest pressure between seasons.
Pest control and integrated pest management protect crops from insects, diseases, and weeds without unnecessary chemical inputs. Grafting, sexual propagation, and vegetative propagation techniques are used to propagate new plants and maintain variety characteristics. Temperature control within greenhouses and controlled environments allows growers to extend seasons, protect tender crops from frost, and maximise yields from high-value horticultural crops year-round.
Harvest management, post-harvest handling, and crop production planning complete the production cycle and ensure that horticultural crops reach the market at the right time and in the right condition.
Commercial Horticulture in the UK
Commercial horticulture in the UK is a significant and diverse industry. It encompasses vegetable production for supermarket supply chains, floriculture for garden retail, fruit growing for fresh and processed markets, nursery production for landscape and garden use, and greenhouse production of salad crops, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. The sector employs tens of thousands of people directly and supports a much wider supply chain across logistics, packaging, retail, and food processing.
Food security concerns have raised the profile of UK commercial horticulture significantly since 2020. The disruption of global supply chains, changes to agricultural labour availability following Brexit, and increasing consumer demand for UK-grown produce have all driven investment in domestic horticultural production capacity. Large-scale greenhouse production, vertical farming operations, and expansion of outdoor vegetable production are all growing areas of UK commercial horticulture in the mid 2020s.
Commercial production at scale introduces operational challenges that smaller growing operations do not face. Water demand is foremost among them. A large-scale glasshouse tomato operation may use millions of litres of water per year for irrigation alone. An outdoor vegetable production business across several hundred hectares relies on reliable irrigation supply through the growing season to maintain yield and quality. When mains water supply is unreliable, abstraction licences are constrained, or water costs rise steeply, commercial horticulture is directly and financially exposed.
Water Management in Horticulture
Water management is one of the most critical operational challenges in commercial horticulture. Plants require consistent, reliable water supply at the right volume and quality throughout the growing season. Too little water at critical growth stages reduces yield and quality. Inconsistent supply disrupts irrigation scheduling and stresses crops. For greenhouse production in particular, irrigation management is continuous and precision-dependent.
The UK's growing regions are not evenly distributed across the country's rainfall patterns. East Anglia, Lincolnshire, and the south-east, which together account for a large share of UK vegetable and salad crop production, are also among the driest parts of the country. Annual rainfall in parts of East Anglia is below 600mm, making reliable on-site water storage essential for operations that cannot depend on natural rainfall alone to meet crop water demand.
Abstraction licence restrictions add a further layer of challenge. The Environment Agency has tightened controls on water abstraction across many UK catchments in recent years, and licences can be suspended during drought periods precisely when irrigation demand is at its highest. For growers who have historically relied on river or groundwater abstraction to supply their irrigation systems, the risk of licence suspension is a direct operational and financial threat.
Rainwater harvesting, combined with correctly sized on-site storage, is the most effective long-term solution to both the cost and the supply reliability challenges facing UK horticultural businesses. Harvested rainwater is free, not subject to abstraction licensing, not metered, and naturally soft, making it gentler on plants and growing media than hard mains water. A correctly sized storage tank captures rainfall during the wet months of the year and holds it in reserve for use during the dry growing season when irrigation demand peaks.
Irrigation Tank Solutions for UK Growers
Butek Tanks' corrugated steel water storage tanks provide high-capacity rainwater harvesting and irrigation storage from 2m3 to 5,000m3, designed to meet the water management demands of commercial horticultural operations of every scale. Tanks are site-assembled without heavy machinery, can be installed on concrete bases, compacted hardcore, or existing yard surfaces, and are available with a full range of inlet, outlet, and distribution fittings as standard.
For irrigation storage applications, tanks are fitted with a liner kit matched to the stored liquid and the intended use. For rainwater harvesting storing water for direct crop irrigation, a food-safe liner specification ensures the water quality is maintained throughout its storage period. Roof kits prevent contamination from airborne debris, bird access, and UV-driven algal growth, all of which degrade irrigation water quality and can introduce pathogens to growing crops.
For greenhouse operations and protected cropping where continuous water supply is critical, our tanks can be configured with pump connections, float valves, and automated inlet controls through our accessories range, ensuring irrigation systems draw from the storage tank without interruption and the tank refills automatically when rainfall is available.
For larger growing operations with both potable water and irrigation storage requirements on the same site, our team designs multi-tank configurations that keep potable and non-potable supplies clearly separated and independently managed from the outset. Professional installation services cover every project from site survey and foundation design through to commissioning and handover.
Frequently Asked Questions About Horticulture
What is horticulture and how does it differ from agriculture?
Horticulture is the science and art of cultivating plants including fruits, vegetables, flowers, ornamental plants, trees, and turf for food, aesthetic, and environmental purposes. It differs from general agriculture in its focus on higher-value specialist crops and its greater emphasis on intensive, skill-intensive cultivation practices. Agriculture typically covers large-scale production of staple arable and livestock crops, while horticulture covers the full range of cultivated plants in managed growing environments.
What are the main branches of horticulture?
The main branches of horticulture are pomology, which covers fruit cultivation, olericulture, which covers vegetable crops, floriculture, which covers flowering and ornamental plants, landscape horticulture, which covers plants for designed and managed landscapes, and arboriculture, which covers the cultivation and maintenance of individual trees and woody plants.
Why is water management so important in commercial horticulture?
Commercial horticultural crops require consistent, reliable water supply throughout the growing season. Water stress at critical growth stages reduces yield and quality significantly. Many of the UK's most productive growing regions are in the driest parts of the country, making on-site water storage essential for operations that cannot depend on natural rainfall alone. Abstraction licence restrictions and rising mains water costs add further pressure on growers to invest in on-site harvesting and storage infrastructure.
How much water does a commercial horticultural operation use?
Water demand varies significantly by crop type, growing environment, and scale of operation. A large-scale glasshouse tomato operation may use several million litres of water per year for irrigation. An outdoor vegetable growing business across several hundred hectares requires irrigation supply across the full growing season. Correctly sizing an on-site rainwater harvesting storage system requires a site-specific assessment of annual water demand, available catchment area, and local rainfall patterns.
Can rainwater harvesting supply all the irrigation water a grower needs?
In many cases, yes. The feasibility depends on the available roof or hardstanding catchment area, local annual rainfall, and the site's total irrigation demand. A correctly sized storage tank capturing rainfall during the winter and spring months can supply a substantial proportion of summer irrigation demand. Our team carries out site-specific assessments to model the relationship between catchment area, storage volume, and annual demand and determine the optimal tank size for each growing operation.
Need Irrigation or Water Storage for Your Horticultural Operation? Butek Tanks Can Help
Whether you are expanding a commercial vegetable growing operation, investing in a new glasshouse facility, managing water costs on an established farm, or planning a rainwater harvesting system to reduce your abstraction licence dependency, Butek Tanks has the expertise and the product range to deliver the right storage solution. As a specialist division of Butyl Products Ltd, we design, manufacture, and install corrugated steel storage tanks for rainwater harvesting, potable water, irrigation, and agricultural liquid management across the UK and internationally. Our solutions are ISO 9001:2015 certified, CE marked, and deployable globally.
Get in touch today. Call us on +44 (0)1277 653 281 or email enquiries@butektanks.co.uk, or visit our contact page to submit your project requirements. Our team will respond promptly to discuss your needs.