Tree grower of Hickman gets ag honor
HICKMAN — Dave Wilson Nursery got big by doing little things right.
Workers propagate fruit and nut trees by taking a young branch from one variety and inserting it into a slit at the base of an established tree. Other steps follow in the months ahead.
"There are about a dozen hand operations," company president Robert Woolley said. "There are minor improvements (in technology), but it's still a hand-made tree."
That care has earned the nursery a place in the Stanislaus County Agricultural Hall of Fame. It was inducted Thursday night during a dinner at the Assyrian-American Civic Club in Turlock.
The event doubled as a fund-raiser for the Ag Science Center, an interactive museum planned for the Modesto Junior College West Campus.
The nursery has an interesting family tree. Dave and Isabel Wilson founded it in 1938 as a home garden center just east of Modesto. Their son-in-law, John Wynne, joined in the early 1940s and became president in 1962.
Woolley, in turn, is Wynne's son-in-law. He came on board in 1980 and bought the business in 1989 with his wife, Jane Woolley, the granddaughter of Dave and Isabel Wilson.
Today, the nursery grows more than 3 million deciduous fruit, nut and shade trees a year. It supplies commercial orchardists and garden centers in California and beyond.
The growing grounds have been off Lake Road, a few miles east of Hickman, since 1967. They total about 1,500 acres today.
The company crossbreeds varieties continually, aiming for the right mix of flavor, texture, size, color, disease resistance and durability for shipping.
The nursery has long provided the mainstays of San Joaquin Valley agriculture, such as peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, walnuts and almonds.
The company also keeps up with changes on the landscape. Just last week, it became a distributor of olive trees from NursTech Inc., which is part of California's emerging olive oil industry.
Dave Wilson Nursery supplies home garden centers with trees and vines, ranging from the familiar stone fruits to pawpaws and other exotics.
The company employs about 120 people year-round and expands to as many as 300 during its peak periods.
"We pride ourselves on the longevity of our year-round employees," Woolley said. "Many of them have been here 20 years."
This is the third time in the hall's 12 years that nursery people have been honored. Burchell Nursery of Oakdale was inducted in 2007. Modesto stone fruit breeder Floyd Zaiger, whose creations are grown and marketed by Dave Wilson Nursery, was honored in 2004.
Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or 578-2385.
A HISTORY
The Stanislaus County Agricultural Hall of Fame inducts new members once a year. The honorees:
- 2009: Dave Wilson Nursery, a supplier of fruit, nut and shade trees east of Hickman
This story was originally published November 12, 2009 at 8:58 PM with the headline "Tree grower of Hickman gets ag honor."