California Rare Fruit Growers – West LA Chapter
because the best things in life do grow on trees
Obviously not our traditional Second Saturday meeting day (or meeting time for that matter), but we are just so grateful to Dan Nelson for finding another slot for us — after draconian weather forecasts led him and us to cancel the trip in early September.
Temperatures should be much more comfortable for all concerned so make sure to get this onto your calendar pronto. Unfortunately, we don’t have a plant availability/price list yet but will get it to chapter members as soon as we do.
By now all chapter members should have received the address and plant price list for our field trip on the 10th. If you haven’t, please let us know! Because we are going to be allowed to park on the grounds this year, there will also be an updated address in your meeting reminder later this week.
Please, please, please email the list of your wants to us by Wednesday so we can get them to Laverne in time for them to pull the plants. They will be waiting for us at the end of the tour. They have to be paid for in CASH.
If you need more information on the size of the plants, this is a more detailed .pdf. The dates listed are when the plants, mostly described last week as SS or substandard, are expected to be up to snuff. Some of the dates will have already passed by the time we get to Piru and therefore those plants should be full size. Other dates are as soon as 10/1 but some are not until next year. Please keep that in mind when making your selections. You can also see the number of plants available for each size. and their actual dimensions.
Many of you have been startled by how much more expensive the plants are this year than in the past. We are assuming the skyrocketing prices of gas and water have much to do with that. Out of curiosity, I stopped by my local Armstrong’s Garden Center today where 5 gallon citrus trees are $59.99 and 5 gallon avocados are $69.99. Obviously the prices we are being offered are much better than that.
Anyhow, plant acquisitions aside, this is always one of my favorite tours. Our host, Director of Nursery Operations Dan Nelson, is both knowledgeable and charming and it is always fascinating to see how the pros propagate and grow up some of our most loved plants.
For the first time in almost three years, we are finally getting up close and personal again with the amazing growing fields (and propagation greenhouse) of the great wholesale fruit nursery LaVerne . It was recently purchased by Everde Growers but we have been assured the staff and congeniality will remain the same. This is primarily an outdoor field trip (with the exception of the grafting tables/ greenhouse) so you will need a hat. Also there are no restrooms so stake out nearby gas stations!
Exact address and further details will be sent to members as soon as we have them; as will, of course, a plant availability list for any who want to buy fresh new plants at wholesale.
Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash
Sorry, folks. Ernesto’s travel plans changed and he will be back in Davis next week. So we will be back to meeting on our jammies (on Zoom!) as we have for most of the past two years.
Note that despite the fact that LaVerne Nursery has been sold, Dan Nelson is still there and our tour with him in September is still on . If you haven’t done the LaVerne tour before, don’t miss it. It is fabulous. I’m going for the third time.
Photo by Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
Dear Chapter. we are slowly inching back to a new normal. Because our Davis-based August speaker, Ernesto Sandoval, is going to be in LA, we will be lucky enough to hear him live and in person. With our lovely MultiPurpose Room patio, we even have the option of meeting COVID-safely outside though I for one will still be wearing a mask.
This means, however, we will NOT be on Zoom unless someone volunteers to transmit it for us. Since there is virtually no wifi in the MPR, this will require a phone with better reception than I got when I attempted to video the Bartlett Arborists.
Alternatively, if someone would rather not use up their data but is willing just to video the meeting, we can still put it up on our Google Drive for non attendees to view.
With 100 member, we have to have someone less wobbly than yours truly. The chapter even owns a phone tripod if that helps. Please, someone, for the sake of your fellow members, volunteer for this very undemanding once or twice a year job.
Photograph by Lance Anderson on Unsplash
Have you ever wondered why your plant has a sudden burst of growth after transplanting? Or how the plant “knows” to grow new parts when pruned or how a cutting knows to make roots? Maybe you’ve even wondered about how a fruit knows to ripen or why leaves all of a sudden turn yellow when you bring a plant home? Find answers to these questions and others about why your plants grow the way they do during this informative yet not so technical presentation by Ernesto Sandoval, Director of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.
Ernesto Sandoval has been wondering and seeking questions and answers to why plants grow and look the way that they do for nearly 40 years. Now he explains and interprets the world of plants to a variety of ages and from amateur to professional gardeners. He regularly lectures to a variety of western Garden Clubs throughout the year and particularly to Succulent Clubs throughout California. Although desert plants are his particular passion within his general passion for plants, he describes himself as a “Jose of All Plants, Master of None” and loves learning from the experiences of others as well as his own. Ernesto thoroughly enjoys helping others, and gardeners in particular, to understand why and how plants do what they do.
When he was about 13 he asked his dad why one tree was pruned a particular way and another tree another way. His dad answered bluntly “because that’s the way you do it.” Since then he’s been learning and teaching himself the answers to those and many other questions by getting a degree at UC Davis in Botany and working from student weeder/waterer to Director/Manager over the last 30 years at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory.
This year seems to have featured, along with other disasters, an even heavier-than-usual invasion of Argentinian ants. If you are trying to keep them out of your figs (who knew?!) or your bee hives, this is an extraordinary paper on why those traps you bought at Home Depot just aren’t working and what to do instead.
I don’t think we have ever had so many people glued to their Zoom screens for so long as we did when Allister Cooney of Netafim shared his decades of irrigation experience with us on the 16th. Learning that drip irrigation is even more efficient than rainfall was an eye-opener and I ‘m sure will be changing many of our watering habits. Ditto that flush valves are absolutely necessary, even for tree rings Allister provided illustrations of best practice drip layouts, including the sizing of headers and the appropriate spacing of drippers in different situations. The online irrigation calculator he mentioned is available here. The catalog of Netafim products is here. He also mentioned that if you know exactly what you want, local business like Smith Pipe & Supply or Aqua-Flo will order them for you.
If you happened to miss the talk, or want to refresh your memory, the video is available to chapter members. Just ask.
Photo by NITIN SHAH on Unsplash
If you don’t happen to get the New York Times, this past Saturday’s issue had a full-page story about an 82-year old man in Uttar Pradesh who has grafted 300 varieties of mango onto his beloved 120 year old tree. You can (and should!) read it here
Photo by JACQUELINE BRANDWAYN on Unsplash
Speaker: Allister Cooney of Netafim
Watering is always a big issue in Southern California and the current drought with its associated water rationing has made it more so. A talk by an expert about irrigation has become very timely. Because of this, we have changed the topic for our July meeting.
Allister is a landscape professional with 26 years of experience in landscape architecture and irrigation design and installation. He is currently a salesperson for Netafim, the world’s largest drip irrigation company. He will explain the use of Netafim products and irrigation design. He will discuss drip emitters, micro sprinklers, and other products to irrigate our gardens.
While many of us have used or seen the Netafim drip emitters, there are many innovative Netafim products with which we might not be familiar. In addition, many of the Netafim products are unavailable in our local retail stores. Allister can tell us how to get them!
Allister is a graduate of the University of Gloucestershire and the University of Sheffield in England and has experience in both the public and private sector, having worked with landscape architects, contractors, municipalities, and home builders.
He will discuss when to use what type of product, installation methods, how to design a watering system, the types of flush valves and air/relief valves, and many other important aspects of irrigation.
Come with your irrigation questions! Zoom links will arrive in your newsletter. Non-chapter members, please contact us if you would like a link.
Photo by philip junior mail on Unsplash