The history of teaching horticulture is related to the activity of the Jagiellonian University, where the Agricultural College was founded, and in 1890, an outstanding botanist and enthusiastic gardener, prof. Edward Janczewski started his activity. Professor Janczewski together with his assistant, a subsequent professor, Piotr Brzeziński, conducted the first horticulture courses, using the farm in Prądnik Czerwony for practical demonstrations. In addition to educational and scientific tasks, this garden, as a model horticultural plant, was a source of information for practitioners about new varieties of vegetables and fruits. It was the first university experimental facility and the first facility of this type in Galicia.
In 1919, the Department of Horticulture was established at the Agricultural College of the Jagiellonian University, and prof. Brzezinski became its head. This department was later included in the structures of the Faculty of Agriculture established in 1923.
The Department of Horticulture conducted vigorous activity in the field: projects were developed for the regionalization of vegetables and orchards in southern Poland, projects of raw material bases for the processing industry, selection of the Hungarian plum was carried out in Sądecczyzna, the causes of alternating fruiting of apple trees were investigated, methods of soil cultivation, pest control in orchards and vegetables were developed.
The most important facts from the history of horticultural sciences:
- 1924 - 2-year Horticultural Courses were established at the Faculty of Agriculture. The students received university-level education.
- 1938 – Horticultural Courses were transformed into three-year Horticultural Studies. Until the outbreak of the war, the Department of Horticulture not only conducted extremely lively scientific and didactic activities, but also disseminated the results of experiments, thanks to which the Krakow horticultural center became a leader in the country.
- 1945/46 – Establishment of the Department of Horticulture with the Experimental Station by the Faculty of Agriculture of the Jagiellonian University under the supervision of prof. Franciszek Zabłocki, and then prof. Stefan Ziobrowski.
- 1953 – establishment of the Department of Horticulture within the Faculty of Agriculture of the Higher School of Agriculture (head prof. dr Stefan Ziobrowski)
- 1968 –The Faculty of Horticulture is established on the 1st of July. Its first dean was the later long-term Rector of the Academy of Agriculture in Krakow, prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Wojtaszek.
- 1978 – opening of the new seat of the Faculty of Horticulture, January 22nd, 1978.
- 2009 - opening of new experimental greenhouses at the Faculty of Horticulture
- 2014 – inclusion of the Biotechnology into the Faculty and change of the name to the Faculty of Biotechnology and Horticulture
