Rate My Professor Maru K. Kering

Maru K. Kering serves as Associate Research Professor at the Agricultural Research Station of Virginia State University. His academic background includes a Master of Science degree awarded in 2003 from Missouri State University, where his thesis examined the effects of media pH on growth and nutrient content of grape cultivars. He has held appointments at Virginia State University focused on agricultural research, with promotion and tenure granted in 2018.

Kering’s research centers on plant nutrition and physiology, with emphasis on forage production, native warm-season grasses, bioenergy crops, cover crops, and industrial hemp. Key areas include harvest management effects on biomass yield and quality of grasses, legume cover crops as nitrogen sources for hemp, winter survivability of flax, and disease issues in hemp such as southern blight. He received the Meritorious Service Award in 2021 for contributions to industrial hemp research and production in Virginia. His work appears in peer-reviewed journals including Agronomy and Agriculture, addressing topics such as compensatory growth responses in grasses and nutritional properties of vegetable soybeans.