Ping Yu: Hello everyone, welcome to the Blooms and Beyond podcast, a podcast that can cover plant history, culture, and management through the lens of science. I'm your host, Ping. In today's episode, me, my colleague, Richie, and one of my PhD students, Yan, here with me at the University of Georgia, we're going to have a brief introduction to this podcast. Richie.

Rich Braman: Thank you, Dr. Yu. It's a pleasure to join you today. And I've been looking forward to this as you have been sharing this really cool vision that you have for this series. And of course, I work with you across the way. I'm with the Center for Urban Agriculture. With them, I'm what they call a systems administrator and developer. But I work with the center predominantly in the online programming space.

Ping Yu: Thank you. Yan.

Yan Zhang: Hi everyone, my name is Yan Zhang and I'm a first-year PhD student in horticulture at the University of Georgia.

Yan Zhang: I'm currently working with Dr. Ping Yu.

Yan Zhang: My research focuses on thrips, integrated pest management, and ornamental plants.

Yan Zhang: Since I worked on my master's degree, I started to do research about pest management.

Yan Zhang: At that time, I worked on an insect called bark beetle.

Yan Zhang: My experience taught me how to see research as an exploration, not just about the results, but about learning from every attempt.

Rich Braman: Well, thanks for handing the reins over for just a minute.

Rich Braman: So, Ping, I have really enjoyed both getting to know you and getting to know you professionally as well over these last couple of years.

Rich Braman: And one of the things that's really stood out to me has been both the story of kind of how you landed different places working on different things professionally.

Rich Braman: But one of the things I know your audience is going to be excited to hear is a bit more on the story about how you found your way to where you are.

Rich Braman: You know, what brought you to this field specifically and how you navigated your way to horticulture in the first place.

Rich Braman: Do you mind sharing a little bit about that with us?

Ping Yu: Oh, no, not at all. Honestly, over the years, I have heard a lot of different stories of how they ended up in horticulture with so many people from so many different backgrounds.

Ping Yu: And some may be a professional ballet dancer, some might be engineering, ended up in horticulture.

Ping Yu: So my story is a little bit different from them because I grew up in a small village town in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province, southwestern China.

Ping Yu: That town is known for a 2,000-year-old irrigation system.

Ping Yu: It's a prime example of sustainable water management.

Ping Yu: One of the things that amazed me the most is the irrigation system is still functioning today.

Ping Yu: If you haven't heard about the irrigation system, that's fine.

Ping Yu: But I think you probably know the giant panda.

Ping Yu: So my hometown is known for giant panda and beautiful natural scenery and spicy food.

Ping Yu: My first horticulture endeavor was a competition with friends, gardenia propagation, when I was only 10 years old.

Ping Yu: I made a couple of cuttings from the gardenia plants from one of my neighbor's yard and inserted them into our rice field behind the house with the surface irrigation.

Ping Yu: That's just basically how they grow rice in the southeastern China.

Ping Yu: Spoiler alert, I won.

Ping Yu: Then I received my bachelor's degree in horticulture from Sichuan Normal University with my initial intention to become an architecture designer.

Ping Yu: But the more I learned about horticulture in general, the more I fell in love with that.

Ping Yu: So after I got my bachelor's degree in horticulture, I pursued my master's degree in horticulture science in Nanjing Forestry University.

Ping Yu: In there, I had the opportunity to talk to one of the professors here in the U.S.

Ping Yu: And then I decided to pursue my PhD degree here in the United States.

Ping Yu: Texas A&M. And then from there, I spent another 10 months in University of Florida as a postdoc or associate researcher. In 2022, I joined the University of Georgia as an assistant professor and ornamental horticulture specialist.

Rich Braman: What an incredibly unique story. You know, thank you for sharing that with us. I have to say you have mentioned before a little bit about background, your initial inclination towards design, do you ever find yourself spotting almost like crossovers between some of your passions there? Like, do you ever find a bit of maybe odd or surprising crossover between a bit of a design background with your modern experience in horticulture?

Ping Yu: A little bit. When I was doing my bachelor's degree, we are all majoring horticulture, but a lot of my classmates right now, they are working as designers who are working in like a landscape architecture design type of work. And my master's degree, while I am focusing more on the horticulture perspective, some of my lab mates, they are from the art school or art department where most of their work are towards designing in architecture and art in general. So a lot of times we would work together for landscape design project. One of the things that I find is for the designers, they spend a lot of time working with the computer, using the computer to draw the footprint or the blueprint for the project in general. But then one thing I find very odd but not really from their perspective is a lot of times they are the one putting the plant in their project. However, a lot of times we have to work with them because they don't know which plant will survive or they would like, oh, I like this, but then when you put this little thing into your project, into your drawing, it doesn't make sense. Once you're putting the real plant into there, they're gonna die. If they die, you would not have your ideal effect with the system that you want to build. So that's one of the things I think every institution need to require those designers to at least take some basic plant class so that they would understand some basic information about the plant they are putting into their design.

Rich Braman: It amazes me sometimes how much of it is there to see. When we're able to look just a little bit beyond the surface, it's amazing just how tied together those are.

Ping Yu: Yeah.

Rich Braman: Well, thank you for sharing all that and kind of continuing off that and diving into this even more. Would you mind sharing with us both a little bit more about your background now and kind of how that ties into your role here at UGA?

Ping Yu: Yeah, like I said, after I further trained my professional career at the University of Florida, I came here as an assistant professor and extension specialist in the horticulture department. So my current role is extension specialist.

Ping Yu: I help the commercial nursery and greenhouse growers with horticultural issues, including irrigation, nutrient, substrate management, and anything related to production. As my student Yan mentioned a little bit, I also work with some horticultural practices that can be incorporated with integrated pest management practices. So I work closely with colleagues from other disciplines, including weed science, entomology, and plant pathology.

Ping Yu: And also along with our wonderful extension agents who provide us strong support for our stakeholders for a thriving green industry in Georgia and beyond. With my PhD degree, I work primarily with substrates, specifically biochar for greenhouse crops production. Also worked a little bit on disease suppression for that perspective. And for my postdoc training, I worked with a weed scientist and working on weed control for ornamental horticulture. So it's kind of a combination of all those core disciplines incorporating with entomology or plant pathology and weed science in horticulture all together to serve our industry or stakeholders because I quickly find that the key source that you're constantly looking for. So that's basically my current responsibility.

Rich Braman: So you had mentioned both your colleagues in plant pathology, of course your colleagues in horticulture, and then colleagues in entomology as well. And I'm excited to hear more about your adventures in all those spaces. And I know you're going to talk with us a little bit about the IPM related issues as well. But I have to say, I know you have some real giants in their respective spaces and somehow you seem to find your way to working with and knowing all of these folks.

Rich Braman: I'm excited to see what you'll share with us in the coming year with your series here. So if you don't mind me asking, I am incredibly curious. We're talking about horticulture writ large, but would you mind satisfying my curiosity and just sharing with us a little bit about what your personal favorite plant is and kind of what your story is there with that?

Ping Yu: So my favorite plant hasn't always been sunflower.

Ping Yu: There might be folks out there who's listening would be, oh, yeah, I love sunflowers too.

Ping Yu: Sunflower's scientific name is Helianthus annuus.

Ping Yu: Sorry if I'm getting too nerdy, but just bear with me on that.

Ping Yu: The helios is a Greek Latin name.

Ping Yu: All of the scientific names are Latin names.

Ping Yu: It means sun and anthos means flower.

Ping Yu: And annuus, the species name, means it's an annual plant.

Ping Yu: So basically the scientific name can give you a way of some of the characteristics the plant shares.

Ping Yu: I think I love this plant for at least two reasons.

Ping Yu: From the plant perspective, the young sunflowers, they face the sun all the time.

Ping Yu: They track the sun across the sky from east in the morning and west in the afternoon.

Ping Yu: And then they, at night, the head will reorient back towards the east, and then they're going to ready for the sunrise the next morning.

Ping Yu: So the mechanism behind that is because the uneven cell grows in the stem.

Ping Yu: The side of the stem that is away from the sun grows faster, which bends the head toward the sun.

Ping Yu: And the reason is because the hormone control, the movement is driven by auxin, which is a very common plant hormone that stimulates the growth.

Ping Yu: So the auxin are accumulated on the shady side of the stem and inundating those cells and causing the head to bend towards light.

Ping Yu: You don't see a lot of plants having that movement.

Ping Yu: A lot of plants you're saying it's just sitting there and just shine and bloom in there.

Ping Yu: But sunflower is of those intriguing plants that can have their movement just like human.

Ping Yu: And the second reason is from the cultural perspective.

Ping Yu: Another side fact about me is Vincent van Gogh is my favorite painter.

Ping Yu: And he painted several sunflower series in between 1887 to 1889.

Ping Yu: And he used them to decorate his studio and as a welcome for his friend and fellow painter Paul Gauguin. If you haven't read the biography of Vincent van Gogh, please do because I guarantee you after you read that biography you're gonna fall in love with this guy not just because of his talent in painting but he as the person. So for him, sunflower represents gratitude and friendship, but they also expressed as a cycle of life and death because he has some of the paintings that the flower that he's painting are vibrant, others are wilting. But one of the features that most of van Gogh's painting are the bold color that he used for all those like sunflower painting series that he has. He used the bold yellows which is a way to explore light, hope, and spiritual radiance. So from the cultural perspective, sunflower represents van Gogh's passionate, emotional and the incredible talents and gifts. So that's why I feel like every time I saw sunflower, I think about van Gogh, I think about the biography, I think about his life and all the struggle he has and all the achievements that I come across over the years. Every time I saw sunflower, I would have the courage to carry on with whatever struggle that I may have. I was like, life is worth living and there's always a hope. Just keep going on. So from the both plant perspective and cultural perspective, sunflower does give me all this power that a plant can.

Ping Yu: Yeah.

Rich Braman: Thank you so much for sharing with that.

Rich Braman: That was an incredibly touching story.

Rich Braman: It really was such an intimate part of his life from beginning to end.

Rich Braman: And what a way, just wonder the way he saw and shared with us that interplay between color and light.

Rich Braman: You don't have to speak the language to know that it speaks to you.

Rich Braman: Well, I know you have shared with me a little bit about the podcast and have to say I'm incredibly interested in what inspired you to start with this series, both in general. But let me just ask, why a podcast?

Ping Yu: So basically, I have think about podcast for a long time. But with my busy schedule, I just never had a chance to really set time and committed to and take any actions towards it. But I have to thank my student, Yan, who's here today with us. And she initiated or pushed me to the point where I have to take actions right now.

Ping Yu: Yan, do you mind sharing some of those original ideas of the podcast and how you pushed me to the edge of having to take action for the podcast now?

Yan Zhang: No problem.

Yan Zhang: Actually, I came up with this idea because of my PhD program.

Yan Zhang: I'm currently doing research about thrips parvispinus.

Yan Zhang: So I want everybody to have awareness about these insects.

Yan Zhang: Now, I think podcast is a quite popular way for people to share and for entertaining.

Yan Zhang: So I think it's a good time for us to do that.

Yan Zhang: This project is supported by the grant from American Floral Endowment, whose mission is to fund educational programs to promote more young people into the horticulture industry.

Yan Zhang: The podcast project is an educational program.

Yan Zhang: It suits their AFE mission very well.

Yan Zhang: Our vision is quite simple to share the science-based strategy in a way that's easy for the public to follow and be practical.

Yan Zhang: We want this to be useful for everyone, the growers, researchers, students, and even the home gardeners.

Yan Zhang: We will cover the things in our podcast, like the thrips biology, biological control, and the cultural practices in integrated pest management.

Yan Zhang: And from our research updates and the real success stories from in the field.

Yan Zhang: And I think the best part for our podcast is you can tune in whenever and wherever you are, whether you're in a greenhouse or you're driving the way to your company or just relaxing at home.

Yan Zhang: It's my original desire to design this project.

Ping Yu: Yeah, as I told you before, I had thought about podcasts for a long time. I just never had a chance for initiation to actually take any actions on that. Early this year, we got an American Floral Endowment Educational Grant proposal.

Ping Yu: We got the award and the proposal was developed by my student, Yan, and she wanted to develop a podcast that specifically to deliver or disseminate the information that generated from her research project.

Ping Yu: In that original proposal, she proposed the podcast would be named as Thrips Talks, which includes six episodes covering the biological thrips and their cultural practice or management and some of the case studies in nursery and greenhouses.

Ping Yu: So after we got that proposal, I was like, okay, now we are doing it.

Ping Yu: That's the initiation of me actually taking action for the podcast idea.

Ping Yu: But because I have a background in horticulture in general and I love plants, I love interaction with people in this field and wanted to share the plant power to a larger audience.

Ping Yu: So I talked to the AFE staff to expand the Thrips Talk podcast a little bit more so that we can include more topics and covering more information related to plants so that we can share the power of plant to more people. And they were like, yeah, that's great because I don't want to just start a podcast and have six episodes and be down because we have so much to talk about plants and plant world is, it's just a wonderful world and once you step in you don't want to step out. That's how we end up having a podcast here today.

Ping Yu: And I look forward to moving this podcast forward and growing with the podcast as well.

Rich Braman: Thanks for sharing with us a little bit more about the why of the podcast.

Rich Braman: And Ping, I have to, you have shared with me off the air here a little bit about sort of the things that inspire you and some of the places I know you want to go in the future with this podcast.

Rich Braman: Do you mind sharing with us a little bit more about your vision?

Ping Yu: Yeah.

Ping Yu: So basically, as the tagline of the podcast, I'll give you some hints on what we're going to talk about from the podcast.

Ping Yu: It's a podcast that covers plant history, culture, and management through the lens of science.

Ping Yu: So the history of plant, and I think it's just more about you feel the power of plant and culture with the example from the sunflower.

Ping Yu: So that's one of the reasons why I wanted to more information on that, because I don't think a lot of people out there would know, or I think they will appreciate more if they would know more.

Ping Yu: And so I'm trying to attract more people into horticulture.

Ping Yu: That's just my personal reason behind the thing.

Ping Yu: I wanted to unfold the plant powers through horticultural anecdotal stories and successful management practices. And each episode will feature an interview with the expert in horticulture bringing you the most enchanting stories behind the saying that pioneering research shapes the future and the invisible power enriches your life. So whether you're a commercial professional looking for management practices, students in search of horticulture career opportunities, or someone just questioning after a plant-related stories or anyone in between, you can find something in this podcast that will help you. So with my current position at University of Georgia as specialist for ornamental production, it is natural for me to create and deliver information to my target stakeholder which is a commercial growers who is constantly looking for management practices solutions to help their production. And like I said, I would also love to share the plant power to a larger audience who has a plant heart wanting to step into the plant jungle with me. So generally, I wanted to make sure that I weave in all those information that will work for the general public who has a place in their heart for plant and also the commercial grower nurseries and even landscapers to provide useful information and practices to help them with their production and operation. So those are the two main audience that I'm shooting for. Most of my guest speakers will be the researchers who are professional from the academia because most of my network are from them, but I would also have guest speakers from the industry with strong horticultural backgrounds and organization leaders to talk about their experience and share the stories. So you would know a little bit more about the plants. And because when you walk out of the podcast episode, I would love for the growers or commercial professionals to grab at least one piece of advice that can help you with your operation and production and for the general public and people who love plants to get one piece of information that you can even brag about, oh, I know for instance I know how the sunflower move around to the sun, just things like that. So that you can spread the plant power to a larger audience so that we can all make the whole environment a little bit better. Some of the topics about this podcast will range from the management perspective, including irrigation management, plant hunting, techniques and labor management, career preparation and IPM and anything in between. And I would love to, I'll try my best to weave in the history and culture and stories within each of those related topics, because believe me, all those people that I've known in the horticulture field, they all have the enchanting story of how they end up getting horticulture and about some specific plant.

Ping Yu: So I'm trying to weave those information into each topic so that we can enjoy the story and well learn something from it.

Rich Braman: I really love where you are taking this, both with the speakers that you mentioned, but I cannot wait to see where you're going to grow it. Particularly when you mention folks on the production side of things, on the growing side of things, on the management side of things, this just seems like something that no matter where our interests lie, there are so many places where we share them. And regardless of where we land in this space, there's the opportunity both for interconnection and for learning.

Ping Yu: Yeah.

Rich Braman: All right.

Rich Braman: So, Ping, can we go ahead and kind of end on the note, maybe just sharing with the audience about maybe some of the folks, particularly who in your journey had some of the largest or most profound impact for you in terms of your journey in horticulture throughout your life?

Ping Yu: Thank you for asking me on that.

Ping Yu: There are so many names that need to be mentioned, but among them, I have to say at least two of them. If without them, I wouldn't be who I am and I wouldn't be where I am right now. Back to my master's degree, when I was doing my master's degree at Nanjing Forestry University, I was asked by my back-then advisor to be a tour guide for Dr. James Robbins, who is a retired professor and extension specialist from University of Arkansas.

Ping Yu: And so I spent a couple, maybe three days with him exploring Nanjing city.

Ping Yu: And then we're talking about my professional experience and of course my personal experience.

Ping Yu: And he started to encourage me to apply a PhD program at Texas A&M University with Dr. Mengmeng Gu, who is the dean of extension at Colorado State University right now. This is the American dream come true type of story. Back then, I didn't think that I can actually do that. I was just a master's student at a random university in China. And then she started to talk me, hey, if you wanted to, why don't you start preparing your English test and then see how it goes? And I was like, oh gosh, I never thought about it.

Ping Yu: And I don't think I can even afford that.

Ping Yu: And it's like, if you can pass a test and there are assistantships that you can get.

Ping Yu: And so you can come here with a PhD program along with me.

Ping Yu: And I did.

Ping Yu: That's how I ended up going to Texas A&M getting my PhD degree from there.

Ping Yu: And I have to say, without Dr. James Robbins or Dr. Mengmeng Gu, I would not be who I am right now.

Ping Yu: And I would never be where I am right now.

Ping Yu: So those two really shaped my career and also my personal journey a lot.

Ping Yu: And of course, there are so many other people that has helped me professionally and personally along the journey.

Ping Yu: But those two are the ones who really shaped my career path in horticulture.

Ping Yu: And that's why I wanted to pass the legacy to the next generation.

Ping Yu: I wanted to help them just like the way they helped me.

Ping Yu: One of the things that I remember the most from Dr. James Robbins is pay it forward.

Ping Yu: So this is what I am doing, pay it forward to help the next generation to do a good job and become a better person and help with their career paths.

Ping Yu: So, yeah, those two are the ones that I am most grateful for my career paths.

Rich Braman: What a cool story, Ping.

Rich Braman: We really do never go anywhere alone, do we?

Ping Yu: No, you cannot.

Rich Braman: And something you shared, you know, we've got dreams, but how do we get there?

Rich Braman: That is one of the things that I have to say for all of the mountains that you have to climb to get where you're going.

Rich Braman: The systems that we have in place to pursue doctoral future or possibility in the sciences with land-grant universities is kind of wonderfully unique in the fact that there are, you know, if you put in the work like you so obviously have to make the possibilities possible for you in the first place, the fact that there are ways to make that happen is really inspiring to me.

Rich Braman: And I think it certainly will be, as you said, to a lot of folks who have aspirations of that in the future.

Rich Braman: So it's really something to hear you talk about just how important, what did you call it, paying it forward is to you too.

Rich Braman: So I want to take the chance to say thank you, Dr. Yu and Yan, for sharing your stories with us today.

Ping Yu: This episode is supported by American Floral Endowment Educational Grant.

Ping Yu: Conversation like this only happens when you support the show.

Ping Yu: For more information and find ways to support us, please go to bandbpod.com.

Ping Yu: bandbpod.com. If you like what you are hearing, spread the word and share this podcast with the people you love. Make sure you hit that subscription button and give a review for the podcast. And as always, go check out the show notes to learn more about this topic and other topics we featured on the show at bandbpod.com. Thank you for listening. Till the next time, stay healthy and go plants!