News Stories - Page 21

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) offers an exceptional array of courses taught by world-renowned professors — but it is often experiences beyond the walls of the classroom that truly set students apart.  

John Ruter realized at a young age that he belonged in a garden. He came to UGA in 1990 to serve as the nursery crop research specialist at the Tifton Campus after earning bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in horticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the University of Tennessee and the University of Florida, respectively. He now serves as the Allan M. Armitage Professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, specializing in ornamental plant breeding and production.

To call this past spring in Georgia normal would be a mischaracterization. Typical springs in Georgia seem to last about three days — and then we hit the hot weather. This spring, the cooler temperatures were most pleasant and hung on through the middle of May. Rainfall has also been feast or famine, and wind patterns have been higher than normal. Together, these conditions have made for a challenging time in the vegetable garden.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed the fiscal year 2022 budget for the state of Georgia on Monday, May 10, securing $21.7 million for the construction of phase one of a new Poultry Science Complex on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus.

Plants and flowers are popular choices for Mother’s Day gifts each year and University of Georgia plant breeders are responsible for many beautiful varieties available in garden stores.

Native to North America, blueberries are the most-recently commercially domesticated fruit in the U.S. Just a little over a century ago researchers began studying this wild berry with an intent to develop improved varieties for commercial cultivation.