Fruit Breeder Extraordinaire Floyd Zaiger Dies
June 8, 2020 One of the giants of the fruit industry, Floyd Zaiger of Modesto, CA, died June 2. He was 94.
Zaiger, founder of Zaiger Genetics, Inc., is survived by his daughter, Leith Gardner, who, with her brothers Grant and Gary, continue the family business. Zaiger is also survived by six grandchildren. His wife Betty died in 2011. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, services are private.
Grant Zaiger noted you didn’t have to be involved in the fruit industry to be touched by his father’s life’s work.
“The greatest plant breeder since Luther Burbank,” said Grant, citing the inventor of the ‘Russet Burbank’ potato and the ‘Santa Rosa’ plum. “He still influences your life today. If you eat a white peach, a white nectarine, or a Pluot, chances are you’re tasting his work.”
One of nine children, Floyd Zaiger was born Nebraska, later moving to Oregon before eventually settling in California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley. He didn’t set out to be a plant breeder at all, receiving a degree in plant pathology and agricultural education in 1952 from the University of California, Davis, and then teaching high school. He and wife Betty bought an azalea nursery in 1954 to make additional money for their growing family.
It all starts here: Floyd Zaiger gathers peach pollen under the watchful eye of his “assistant,” Paco. (Photo: David Eddy)
His first project was breeding heat-tolerant rhododendrons. Having caught the plant-breeding “disease,” as he called it, esteemed fruit breeder Fred Anderson didn’t have much trouble convincing Floyd to work for him for two seasons. And so about 70 years ago the baton was passed. Anderson is widely regarded as the father of the modern nectarine, and his mentor was Burbank.
Initially, Zaiger concentrated on advancing maturity and lowering the chilling requirements of peaches and nectarines for commercial growers. He always kept a laser-like focus on what attributes growers wanted.
In the early 1960’s, he patented and released his first varieties to the U.S. and France: ‘Royal Gold’ peach and ‘Crimson Gold’ nectarine, which were actually more popular in Europe. In fact, in 1997, Zaiger received the French Legion of Honor — Officer of Merit.
But the fruit Zaiger is best known for is the interspecific plum, crossed with apricot, called the Pluot. He is proudest of Pluots because they are shipped all over the world. The Pluot isn’t the only plum/apricot cross the Zaigers have trademarked. The other would be the Aprium.
However, the most prominent Zaiger variety planted by growers in the past decade isn’t a fruit at all. It is the ‘Independence’ almond, so named because it is self-fertile and thus independent of honeybees — a huge boon for growers.
There has been a total of 446 patents issued in the U.S. for Zaiger’s Genetics Inc. varieties.
Zaiger was first profiled in American/Western Fruit Grower in October 2000, in a story headlined “Chums and Plerries?” Zaiger was crossing the two fruits at the time, and he later patented the ‘Pluerry’, but the Pluerry never really caught on.
Since then, Zaiger’s exploits have been covered many times in the magazine. These include “Bee-Free Almond Tree,” “Floyd Zaiger is the Sweetness Scientist Behind Zaiger Genetics,” and “Getting To Know Floyd Zaiger.” In that last article, Zaiger concluded: “Everyone asks me when I’ll retire, and I say, ‘As soon as I find something I like to do better.’”
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