University of Georgia

A website from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Yu Lab

Research

My research interests include substrate, water and nutrient management, variety selection and promotion, greenhouse/nursery production and management, plant physiology and disease control, weed management, and the best practice for nutrients and water management.

Biochar

Biochar is rich-carbon material produced from thermo-chemical decomposition of biomass in a O2 depleted or limited atmosphere.

Our goal for this project was to reduce peat moss usage, fertilizer leaching, and fungicide usage  in greenhouse production to increase environmental friendliness and reduce growers’ production costs.

Pyrolysis biochar production system (USDA-ARS, New Orleans, LA), consisting three main parts: heating (A), conditioning control (B), biomass receptor and biochar collector (C).
https://twitter.com/pp_systems/status/1423690337956950021/photo/1
Tomato roots grown in sugarcane bagasse biochar (SBB) and mixed hardwood biochar (PB) amended container substrates
Sugarcane bagasse biochar (SBB) and mixed hardwood biochar (PB) as container substrate for tomato and basil plants production

Weed management

Our goal for this project is to explore alternative ways such as nonchemical (mulch) or integrated (mulch + herbicide) weed control method in containers for ornamental plants and landscapes.

Using rice hull and herbicide to control bittercress in containers

Propagation

Using GA3 and cold stratification to propagate sparkleberry for blueberry root stock mass production
Propagating tomato seedlings from seeds


Propagating Poinsettia from cuttings

Plant breeding

Crape myrtle breeding