May 4, 2012

An ‘old dog’ teaches growers new tricks

Readers of FGN are undoubtedly familiar with Paul Friday – if not from his peaches, then from his farm market columns that reflect on his 52 years of experience. In addition to running a farm market in the past, Friday is widely know for the Flamin’ Fury series of peaches he started breeding over 30 years ago in Coloma, Mich.

“I wasn’t happy with the choices we had available for growing peaches in Michigan,” he said. “It didn’t seem like they would compete with California. I thought I’d see what I could do.”

Friday has patented 37 varieties over the course of his career. As with many things, new varieties have replaced older ones, even though the older varieties are still popular, he said. Some of the challenges have been meeting patent expenses and getting virus-free varieties.

“A breeder can’t afford to release a new variety unless he/she is sure the new one is better than what already exists,” he said. “Virus and patent testing, and all of the annual expenses to keep everything up to date, averages about $8,000 per variety. That’s why you rarely see many private breeding programs. It’s just too expensive.”

Time is test

Testing a new variety requires time. It takes a minimum of 15 years to take advantage of a new peach variety, from the initial cross to putting it on the market, Friday said.

“You immediately know what is good about any new cultivars you choose for a second round of testing,” he said. “But, it takes a minimum of 15 years to see what is bad about a particular one: If it is winter hardy, disease resistant, etc. It really takes half a lifetime to really know everything about a particular cultivar.”

Breeders cannot properly evaluate a new cultivar until they have seen it coming down the packing line, Friday said. Some hopeful varieties can be very disappointing there, while others “shine like new money,” he said.

Every aspiring fruit or vegetable breeder should spend a minimum of three summer seasons on a packing line, observing the crops they are interested in breeding, Friday said.

“I cannot stress that enough,” he said. “That is where you really see how well something is going to work, and if it has that ‘wow’ factor.”

Multiple new varieties

Friday released seven new varieties for the 2012 season, which he called the culmination of his breeding work. They include five Flamin’ Fury peach varieties: 8 Ball White, Late 8 Ball, Paramount 24, Legendary and Fashionably Late. He also released Flamin’ Fury Ka-Ching Nectarine and the Flamin’ Early Red apple.

“I might add three or four more during the rest of my lifetime,” he said. “But not this many at one time. I’m getting to be an old dog at 70 years old, but I’ve still got a few tricks.”

One fact Friday was proud of came to him rather by accident. He was looking at all the patents registered in the U.S. and saw that roughly 23,000 of them were for plant species. Subtract those that aren’t truly from U.S. origins and he holds .2 percent of all patented plant species in the U.S., he said.

“That might not mean much to anyone else,” he said. “I find that to be somewhat astounding. You’d think there would be more.”

The Flamin’ Fury name came from two of Friday’s grandchildren, who both sport “flaming red hair,” he said.

Besides breeding peaches, Friday likes to talk about them, which has led to speaking engagements across the country. This past winter, Friday and his wife, Luba, drove to Savannah, Ga., for the SE Regional Fruit and Vegetable Conference; out west to Grand Junction, Colo., for the Western Colorado Horticultural Society Annual Convention; to Hershey, Pa., for the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Conference; and made more stops along the way.

You can learn more about Paul Friday's Flamin' Fury peaches by going here.

By Derrek Sigler, Assistant Editor