Zaiger Genetics Partnership | Dave Wilson Nursery
Zaiger has a huge number of trees they have developed. Do all these developed trees have to be continually grown? Or is it a deal where once you have the formula to make them, you make them on demand, and it just takes time to grow?
They need to keep at least one tree alive for each variety. Otherwise they would have to go out and harvest scion wood from a tree they sold to someone else.
Or stock tree’s with multiple cultivars grafted to them.
Well, how did they make them to start with? Can’t they use that same formula?
They made them by cross breeding two lines. You can’t make the same cross again and expect the same result. Einsteins parents could have another million children without getting another genius just like the original.
They keep mother trees of the original. And harvest scion wood from the mother tree as budwood to make new trees.
At least not with fruit trees typically. With highly inbred stuff like some corn varieties it can be done
I am sure they grow multiple trees dispersed at different locations to hedge against losing the variety. But remember; a lot of companies clonal-ly propagate varieties now. Meaning they stay preserved in cryo-stasis too.
Somebody else already responded explaining how fruit trees are like having children and that’s 100 percent correct.
I’ll just add, that fruit trees for the most part don’t breed true, or in other words plant the seed from a fuji and the apple that pops up will NOT be a fuji.
Every granny smith apple that’s ever come into existence is basically a clone of the original tree. Like you know how a lizard can regrow it’s tail. Imagine if the tail when it broke off, grew a exact copy of the lizard. That’s kind of how our fruit trees are propogated.
It’s a bit different with some garden annuals, in that they can inbreed the line together long enough for the genetics to stabilize so a line of wheat or corn can breed true. But that’s much easier to do when you can get a new generation every year as compared to the time it takes to do the same thing with a fruit tree.
It is “just another Gala”; but when we go ahead and get fully licensed there is one Gala we will buy into and stock. Buckeye Prime. A gorgeous Gala that colors up everywhere.
OK, thanks. I didn’t realize that. So, when they do all these breeding of trees they have to try out tons of losers to fine one winner. I thought they do it like they make all these GMO foods.
I never cared enough to look how gmos are made but do know Zaiger does it old school. No gmo stuff here.
