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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.

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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.

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Ping Yu: Thank you. Yan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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Ping Yu: Spoiler alert, I won.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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Ping Yu: Yeah.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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

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

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

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

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Ping Yu: The helios is a Greek Latin name.

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

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Ping Yu: It means sun and anthos means flower.

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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Ping Yu: Yeah.

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

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Rich Braman: That was an incredibly
touching story.

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

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

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

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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?

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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.

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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?

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Yan Zhang: No problem.

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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Yan Zhang: The podcast project is
an educational program.

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Yan Zhang: It suits their AFE mission
very well.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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Ping Yu: Yeah.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ping Yu: Yeah.

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Rich Braman: All right.

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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?

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Ping Yu: Thank you for asking me on that.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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

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Ping Yu: And I did.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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Rich Braman: What a cool story, Ping.

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

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Ping Yu: No, you cannot.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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

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00:29:26,100 --> 00:29:53,740
Ping Yu: bandbpod.com. If you like what you
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Make sure you hit that subscription button
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And as always, go check out
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Thank you for listening.
Till the next time, stay healthy
and go plants!