PLANT SCIENCES GENETICS Breeding the Future of Berries By Taylor Lauson, Communications Manager
In berry fields around the world, rows of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries represent decades of careful breeding, research and innovation. Plant Sciences Genetics (PSG) is helping drive that progress—building on a family legacy that began with applied science and has evolved into an advanced berry genetics company serving growers and marketers across diverse production regions worldwide. CEO Steve Nelson says the company’s story began in the 1960s, when his father and company founder, Richard Nelson, earned his master’s degree in apiculture at the University of California, Davis. “He got the opportunity to intern at a lab and realized that if he truly wanted to be a contributor in the field, he needed more schooling.” Richard returned to UC Davis for a doctorate in entomology, where he was profoundly influenced by his professor, Frank Strong, who deepened his passion for the field. “My dad specialized in managing genetic resistance in twospotted spider mite populations to commonly used miticides. He later helped introduce the predatory mite Phytoseiulus persimilis to the strawberry industry, making it a cornerstone of integrated pest management for twospotted spider mite control,” Steve said. When Richard graduated in 1969, two paths diverged in front of him as he received job offers that would define the rest of his and his family’s life: one across the country as an entomology professor at Cornell University in New York, or a second, much closer to home in Watsonville, as an applied research entomologist with Driscoll’s. “He felt very aligned with Driscoll’s vision and was attracted to the people and intrigued by their ambition,” Steve said.
Richard spent nearly 20 years with the company before resigning in March 1985 to start Plant Sciences, Inc. (PSI). “At the time, my brother Mike and I were crop science majors, and our sister was a home economics major at California Polytechnic State University,” Steve recalled. “My dad called and said, ‘Well, yesterday I had a great job and three kids in college. Today, I just have three kids in college.’” While Richard walked away from his role in search of new entrepreneurial pursuits, he took with him a network of relationships that would fuel the company’s first steps toward success. “Our initial foundation was contract research. We conducted research on behalf of leading ag chemical companies, including efficacy trials, groundwater and environmental impact studies, worker safety studies and plant metabolism research,” Steve said. After Steve graduated from Cal Poly with a degree in crop science, later going on to earn a master’s degree in plant biology, his dad invited him to come home and help out for the summer. “He was wise in how he asked,” Steve said. “If he had asked me to come home and help him for the next 40 years, I probably would have run the other direction. But the summer seemed doable, so I accepted.” Eventually, Mike graduated and came home “for the summer” as well, later going on to complete his doctorate in plant pathology at UC Davis. Steve said these early years gave them invaluable experience learning how to conduct rigorous science. “With the expectations of not only the companies we were serving, but also federal agencies that audited our work, we learned early on how to set up trials and gather meaningful data—data that’s essential for making sound decisions in plant biology.”
Steve Nelson, CEO of Plant Sciences Genetics
Nelson family photo
50 Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com April – June 2026
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