Horticulture: Personnel : Faculty
John M. Ruter
Professor
Department of Horticulture
Coastal Plain Station
Tifton, GA 31793-0748
Campus: Tifton
Phone: 229-386-3907
Fax: 229-386-7133
Email: ruter@uga.edu
Dr. Ruter currently has an 80% research, 20% extension appointment. Research and extension activities are focused on nursery crop production and plant breeding and selection for the southeastern United States. Production research is currently being conducted on reducing phosphorus losses and water use in container nurseries, micronutrient nutrition (nickel and copper deficiency on river birch and Loropetalum), controlled release fertilizers, plant growth regulation and heat stress physiology.
Current research objectives for plant breeding and selection are:
- To develop and evaluate new plants for southeastern landscapes which have new horticultural characteristics or improved environmental tolerances.
- To develop sterile forms of popular ornamental plants which are not invasive.
- Development of Camellia oleifera , Tea oil, as a new oil crop for the southeastern United States. Click here to view summary article.
Dr. Ruter has evaluated ~ 300 Ilex taxa as well as the following groups of plants: Acer, Clethra, Cotoneaster,Evergreen Ferns, Gardenia, Hydrangea, Illicium, Ornamental Conifers, Ornamental Grasses, Prunus, Rhaphiolepis, Spiraea, Syringa, and Viburnum. Tea oil is healthy cooking oil, high in oleic acid, with numerous other industrial and pharmacological uses. Dr. Ruter has been in charge of the development of the Coastal Plain Research Arboretum, focusing on native flora of the Georgia coastal plain, since 1991.