Mar 30, 2012

Fowler Nurseries: A century in fruit growing

Fowler Nurseries has been growing fruit trees for 100 years.
It started in 1912, when Gene Fowler grew 20,000 pear trees in Newcastle, Calif. He worked for a farm supply company at the time, but eventually took over the nursery operation. Gene’s grandmother, though partially blind, was the one who taught him to bud and graft fruit trees, according to the nursery.

The nursery quickly grew beyond pear trees. By 1914, it was growing an additional 150,000 trees of various types, sold for 12 cents apiece.

Today the Fowler family is still growing fruit trees – more than a million per year on the same roughly 85 acres – in Newcastle, in the foothills below the Sierra Nevada mountains. Gene’s granddaughter, Nancy Fowler-Johnson, helps manage the family business now, along with her husband, Everett Johnson, brothers Steve and Richard Fowler, sister-in-law Terry Fowler and parents Bob and Sue-Dee Fowler.

Over the years, the family developed a large employee base, many of Japanese descent, Nancy said. That connection to the area’s Japanese population helped Fowler Nurseries first propagate Asian pear scion wood in 1937. Today, the nursery is probably the largest producer of Asian pear trees in the United States, Nancy said.

The family nursery also grows European pear and sweet cherry trees these days, but its biggest crop is almond trees. Others include apricot, peach, nectarine, plum and walnuts, Nancy said.

Over the years, Fowler Nurseries has worked closely with the University of California, Davis, to combat viruses and diseases in fruit and nut trees. Around the 1950s, pear decline was a big problem for U.S. orchards. Nancy’s father and grandfather were instrumental in coming up with pear rootstocks that were resistant to pear decline, which helped rejuvenate the industry, she said.

The prime rootstock selected to combat pear decline was Winter Nelis, which is still planted to this day. The second, Pyrus Betulaefolia, originated in China, according to the nursery.
While Fowler Nurseries ships product all over the country, its primary markets are in California, Oregon and Washington state, Nancy said.

The company might not be able to grow nursery stock in open fields much longer, if it can’t use soil fumigants to fight nematodes. Methyl bromide is being phased out and Telone is restricted.

“We’ll see what EPA and others force us to do,” Nancy said.
Members of the family’s fourth generation are now working at Fowler Nurseries. Nancy’s daughter, Denise Moore, is in charge of the container division, publications and other duties. Nancy’s son, Phillip Johnson, works at the nursery part-time.
“We’re blessed to have them involved,” Nancy said.

During harvest, the nursery employs more than 100 people. During lulls, the numbers drop to about 35. Many have been there for decades. One, who recently retired at age 87, was with Fowler 43 years, Nancy said.

Employees and managers celebrated the company’s centennial in January. Two more events are planned: a celebration with customers in June and another with friends and family in September, Nancy said.

Nancy’s take-home message for surviving a century: “We don’t want to be the biggest; we want to remain the best.”

By Matt Milkovich, Managing Editor