Career
Zaiger founded Zaiger"s Genetics, a fruit-breeding business in Modesto, California, which is now an international business selling cultivars and hybrids. Zaiger is famous for developing varieties such as the pluot, and has been called "the most prolific stone fruit breeder in the modern era." Zaiger, a Nebraska native, received a degree in plant pathology and agricultural education in 1952 from the University of California, Davis. Zaiger has developed both cultivars of existing species and new hybrids such as the pluot He uses cross-pollination by hand, rather than gene-splicing or deoxyribonucleic acid manipulation, to develop new hybrids.
The Zaigers hold around 280 patents for types of fruit.
1995 from the American Pomological Society for "distinguished service and contributions to the advancement of pomological science and for outstanding fruit varieties" Zaiger figures prominently in the mental life of artisanal marijuana breeder Miro Basinas, hero of Mark Haskell Smith"s novel Baked.
