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Just the Facts
Founded: By Dave Wilson in 1938.
Locations: The nursery’s headquarters are along the Tuolumne River east of Hickman, Calif. The grower also has an office, sales yard and test orchard in Reedley, Calif.
Production space: 1,500 acres.
Products: Bareroot fruit, nut and shade trees. Specialty: Stone fruit, including Zaiger varieties.
Customer base: Retail garden centers, and wholesale and commercial growers.
Employees: Around 200 year-round and more than 400 during the peak season.
 Dave Wilson Nursery uses GK diggers, which not only dig the trees, but shakes the soil from the roots. This machine can go through a row of 1,000 trees in less than 5 minutes.Pictured in front of the digger is Chris Tarry (left), wholesale division manager, and Bob Driver, production manager. Photo by Roger J. Wyan
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The popularity of edibles continues to climb – a bright spot in a still dim economy. And California-based Dave Wilson Nursery dedicates much of its resources to innovative fruit tree selections.
Introductions must have interesting characteristics, such as early ripening or successive ripening varieties, said Chris Tarry, wholesale division manager. Royal Lee and Minnie Royal cherries harvest up to a month ahead of Bing and produce in low- or no-chill areas.
The nursery’s 4-n-1 Pluot, a multiple budded tree, harvests at different times of the season, starting June 15, next on July 25, again on Aug. 5 and finally Aug. 15.
The company is working on new rootstocks that delay Prunus bloom time, as well as more salt-tolerant Prunus rootstock to market in the desert Southwest, Tarry said. And watch for the release of more cold-hardy fruit trees to market.
“We want to bring fruit trees to markets where they’ve historically never been able to grow,” he said.
Zaiger genetics
Dave Wilson Nursery introduced the first tree fruit varieties developed by Floyd Zaiger in 1966. The nursery is the primary propagator and exclusive licensor of Zaiger varieties.
Floyd Zaiger is a world-renown stone fruit hybridizer who makes more than 50,000 crosses each year, Tarry said.
“Floyd does interspecies cross-over genetics that allows him to cross peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines and cherries outside of their species,” Tarry said.
Retail support
Dave Wilson Nurseries sells to independent garden centers, and wholesale and commercial growers. The nursery has built a core of its business around IGCs instead of large chains, Tarry said.
“That relationship provides a stable platform without the high risk and high variability,” he said.
The company offers several sales and marketing materials, including large picture tags, color-coded bin tags, a harvest chart and a tasting report. Bin tags are sorted by color and each color represents a ripening season.
“This enables the end consumer, at a glance, the ability to pick varieties that don’t harvest at the same time,” Tarry said.
The maturity chart features the grower’s top selling and newest varieties in order of ripening dates.
“This is a great tool for the home gardener if they want to plan their backyard orchard accordingly and stagger fruit ripening,” he said.
The nursery also manages a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.
To keep the tasting report up to date, the nursery coordinates formal tastings two or three times a year. The taste-testers are typically nursery professionals, members of the California Rare Fruit Growers, commercial growers and farmer’s market growers. The panel scores varieties based on qualities such as appearance, flavor, acidity and ripeness.
Some of the top varieties on the taste report include Arctic Glo white nectarine, Van cherry, Eva’s Pride yellow peach and Dapple Dandy Pluot.
For more: Dave Wilson Nursery, 209.874.1821; www.davewilson.com.
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