Tom takes you on a tour of World Famous Zaiger Genetics in Modesto, California. Go behind the scenes as the most famous family in fruit creates new varieties the old fashioned way. Hard work.
We at Family Tree Farms are blessed for having an ongoing working relationship with Floyd Zaiger and his family(Zaiger Genetics) . The chances are if you've eaten more than one variety of tree fruit you've eaten a Zaiger selection. Zaiger's keep up the great work. Tom thanks for producing this video.
I love buying and using trees from great Californian family businesses, like Dave Wilson and Zaiger Genetics. I have the TraZee peach and several of the pluots that Zaiger have developed. The trees are still immature, but are healthy and growing well. I look forward to great home fruit production in the years to come. Thank you Tom and Dave Wilson Nursery for the informative and entertaining video.
What a tremendous, tremendous blessing he is. THANK YOU so much for this wonderful video. They don't make them much like him anymore. These wonderful old folks are a treasure!!
What a great and historic video! Tom Spellman gets such excellent detail in this video. Sad to say, of the California experts here, Chris (Floyd) Zaiger passed at age 94 in June of 2020. Zaiger had an incredible life. He ended his education at age 14 after the 8th grade to work in the fields, picking crops, and was later drafted into the Army in WW2, and served as a 11th Division paratrooper. After the war, Mr. Zaiger finished his high school GED, and then obtained his college degree at U.C. Davis , and worked as a high school teacher. He married Betty Jean Taylor in 1950, and in the daytime taught high school in Modesto. He and his wife started breeding azaleas and rhododendrons as a hobby. Later they founded Zaiger Nursery, working nights. Here is Floyd Zaiger's obituary--www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-06-12/floyd-zaiger-fruit-breeder-dies
THIS WORK IS SO UNDERRATED ,these people are actively saving the world, imagine how many varieties would be extinct due to global warming and the required chill hours.
Tom, can you tell me what time of year is the best for us to come visit the Nursery and try the better varieties? My wife and I have bought a majority of the interspecifics and many other varieties, and are still in the phase of bringing them all to maturity. We would love the opportunity to meet you and the folks at Dave Wilson nursery and tour Zaiger as well. We've watched every video you've posted over the years unto now. Thanks for all you do and the fruit tree inspiration you are.
Fantastic video Tom, thanks for sharing. I'd really like to see the process of how DWN goes about scaling up a new zaiger variety from selection all the way to high volume distribution.
Hello there Tom! I see that Zaiger's breeding stock is grown in those blue containers. Any tips on how they do this, such as size of the container, fertilizing schedule, growing medium, etc.? I think this would be really great information for those of us with limited backyard space!
Greetings Tom, is there any possibility of working in your nursery for 4-6 month just to gain experience and get some knowledge? Thank you for the great video
Hi Tom Please see if you can do a follow-up without giving away proprietary info...I would like to see what they get and the evaluation process. Gr8, m8 ... as usual! Cheers Johno OC-CRFG
