Category: meetings

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Scion Exchange 2022

With the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases in LA County, and the fact that Culver City has closed its schools, the odds of our having a traditional scion exchange this year are starting to look slim.  Fortunately, Fang has reactivated the Scion Exchange app he built last year so we can start posting our Offers and Wants now.  If the rate of hospitalizations and deaths stays the same, we will use the format we did last year.  IE folks can drop any OFFERS requested on Saturday February 12th at my driveway (labelled please!) . I will sort them and make them available for pickup by the WANTERS on Sunday February 13th.  There is a place on the app to work out these exchanges ahead of time and please do so.

Of course, if COVID miraculously goes into retreat, we can do the exchange of Offers and Wants all in one morning on the outdoor patio of our beloved MutliPurpose Room.   We would still need to be masked and respect social distancing.

This year, as was true last year, the Exchange will unfortunately only be open to the West LA Chapter.  The link to Fang’s app has been sent to all current members. If you didn’t receive it, please let us know.

Also please stay tuned for updates. Circumstances can change on a daily basis.

 

Photo by Luke White on Unsplash

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Saturday, October 9th @ 10 a.m. Greenhouses and other Great Stuff for growing fruit

Ahead of the holiday gifting season, we thought we would ask you all to share your favorite Fruit Growing Stuff (you know, so we can add it to our lists).

At our last meeting, Charles told us how he goes commando and does all his propagating outdoors.  But some of us are trying to propagate tropicals that require more humidity than SoCal offers. So Bruce will be telling us about the nifty greenhouse in which he resurrected Eric Durtschi’s struggling cacao seedlings and now has dozens of coffee plants building strength for our holiday sale.

I will offer my much humbler (and cheaper)  greenhouse currently housing 11 cacao seedlings and 1 yang mei seedling.  I will also reveal a great source for horticultural sand (100 pounds for $10!)

Jane will be telling us about her wondrous little electric shredder and her equally wonderous compost bins.

Margaret may be telling us about her metal hoses (or who knows what else lurks in the heart of her garden?).

And any of you who want to offer up your favorite discoveries, please do so.  If you want to get  on the Official Participant list, just Contact Us.  Though of course there will be opportunities to join the gabfest as the spirit moves you.

This was supposed to be our November, first post-Pandemic in person meeting but our October field trip has now been moved to November.  So this will be again on Zoom.  Links will be provided in your newsletter.

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September 18th (NOTE DATE CHANGE!) @ 10 am: Charles Portney on Propagating Fruit Trees

Okay, you clamored for this and now —  at long length —  we can deliver!   Yes, Charles Portney on propagating fruit trees.

A good number of you first became members because of the bounty of our plant sales and many of those plants were provided by the inimitable – and generous — Charles .  On September 18th, he will take you behind the scenes and teach you how he works his magic.  You do not want to miss this meeting!

Because of the Delta Variant, we are still meeting virtually.  You will receive the Zoom links in your newsletter. If you are not a chapter member, but wish to attend, please contact us.

Photo by おにぎり on Unsplash

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Talk by Fritz Maslan, Saturday June 12th @ 10 am

The National Park Service is resurrecting historic orchards. And Fritz Maslan is going to tell us all about it

The orchards of the Fruita Rural Historic District (in the Capitol Reef National Park, South Utah)  are one of the largest ongoing cultivated orchards in the national park system and remain an important part of the region’s rich history and cultural heritage. The orchards were planted by early pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, beginning in the 1880s,  and currently contain approximately 2,000 fruit trees including numerous heirloom varieties.

Fritz Maslan is the  Horticulturist at Capitol Reef and is intimately involved in this long term orchard  restoration project which will begin with the Guy Smith and Cook orchards and – building  on what is learned there – will ultimately involve the other  17 orchards within the park.  He has his work cut out for him, however, since over the past fifty years, the  orchards have lost almost 1,000 trees and with continued losses expected due to age, disease and nutrient deficiencies, the improvement of  the land  along with replanting is needed to maintain orchard historic integrity.

While we, of course, are interested in how and what will be planted in Fruita, Fritz is also interested in what he can learn from us about growing difficult fruit trees.  While this is not one of our normal single-plant-centric talks, it is sure to be fascinating.  Don’t miss it!

Members will receive a Zoom link in their newsletter.  If you are interested in joining us, please contact us at crfgwla@gmail.com

 

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September 12th – 10 am: Fabulous Zoom field trip to Point Dume Orchard

Exactly two years ago, our chapter made a memorable visit to a member’s huge orchard out at Point Dume.  Attendance was strictly limited and many of you were disappointed not to be able to see the wondrous array of exotic trees and wildlife that Arnie has been patiently tending for years (and brought safely through  the Woolsey Fire that totally surrounded it two months after our visit. )

This year, however, thanks to COVID19, you can see the orchard in all its glory… virtually.

Check your member’s newsletter for the Zoom links.  We are still working on getting an unlimited Zoom license but for the time being our Zoom meetings are restricted to members.  Because we have so many new members since our Plant Sale, our spreadsheet may be a little out of date.  If you don’t receive your newsletter within a few days, please let us know.

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Garden Tour & Lecture in One! August 8th at 10 a.m.

via Zoom – You will receive an email reminder      

  (and a duplicate Zoom invitation) to join    

   the meeting on August 7.                           

 

Speaker: Michael Wittman

Attention CRFGers!  You have some fun “homework” to do before August 8th.  Please see the details below.

Want to learn more about permaculture?  Permaculture improves your garden’s soil and reduces greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.  Our presenter on August 8th will be Michael Wittman, CEO of Blue Sky Biochar (www.blueskybiochar.com).  You might call him the “Char-man of the Board.”  Michael is a passionate and knowledgeable speaker.  He has extensive knowledge of and experience with permaculture, using biochar and bamboo vinegar.  Don’t know what these are?  Check out the videos below before our Zoom session on August 8th.

Our meeting will include:

  • a live tour of Michael’s amazing food farm (which he also uses as a permaculture laboratory),
  • a presentation on what Michael did to get the food farm to its current state,
  • Q & A time, and
  • Michael will give us a special discount code that we can use on the Blue Sky Biochar web site.

Please watch these short videos before our meeting, so we can learn more together, and go into more depth in the Zoom meeting.  If your time is limited, please watch at least the first two videos.  You’ll be glad you did!

  1. Biochar 101: Living Soil at https://youtu.be/UcEi3YMPaJQ (15 minutes)
  2. Food Forest: Small Beginnings at https://youtu.be/1ToeSBXI7DA — 7 minutes
  3. We’ll tour the same garden at the beginning of our Zoom meeting, so you can compare the “Before and after.”
  4. Biochar 101: Bamboo Vinegar at https://youtu.be/SFhWpQw7juA (15 minutes)
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Scion Exchange/Grafting Demos February 8th @ 10 am

Yes, our biggest meeting of the year is just about upon us.   And for 2020, we are  again going to provide  intimate, close-up-and-personal  grafting demos by having four different experts each holding down his own table and teaching a variety of different grafts, the Cleft Graft, the Budding Graft, the Veneer Graft, etc.

The meeting will be in the MultiPurpose Room of the Culver City Veterans Memorial  complex.  The schedule will be as follows:

10 – 10:30 –  Registration, affixing of the name tags, the Bringing In and Arranging of the Scion Wood (Click here to access a .pdf on how to collect and store scion wood from  your orchard)  Please place each variety in its own ziploc bag and label it!  Also, if you intend to collect wood at our exchange, bring more ziplocs, and a Magic Marker to label your precious finds.

NOTE:  Because of huanglongbing disease, NO CITRUS scion wood, fruit or roostock should be brought to the meeting or otherwise moved around the state.

10:30 – 11:00 The Grafting Demos (you are encouraged to watch each of them, but obviously you can camp for the duration in front of Fang Liu, for example, if you are trying to master the veneer graft)

11:00-11:30 – Members allowed to select scion wood

11:30 -noon – Non-members allowed to select scion wood

Alas,  because our Chair is currently on medical leave, we will not be doing the hands-on grafting we did last year.  We hope, however, to be able to add it again for 2021

 

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Oct. 12th @ 10 am: Cherimoyas Here, There, and Not Everywhere

Reflections on the Spanish and California Industries by Dr. Ben Faber.

The village of Jete is in the far back of this valley near Almunecar.  It’s all cherimoyas with olives on the hillsides. And nearly all of the cherimoyas are Fino de Jete with lots of seeds, smooth skin, and they all come ripe at the same time with no hand pollination!

Pruning and pollination practices vary considerably both here and in Spain. This is partly due to differences in the “Mediterranean Climates” that are found in the two areas.  We’ll look at those factors, as well as how pruning and pollination are affected by differences in the two “cultural climates”.

Our speaker will be Dr. Ben Faber.  Ben is an advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension in Ventura, where he specializes in soils, water, and subtropical horticulture.  He has a Ph.D. in Soil Fertility, and he maintains a blog and a newsletter that the bulk of our commercial citrus and avocado growers learn from.  Dr. Faber was going to give his presentation on “Cherimoyas in Spain” at the recent Festival of Fruit   However, unfortunately, he was so sick he couldn’t make it.  Please join us for this very special presentation!  We will be in the MultiPurpose  Room at the Culver City Veteran’s Memorial Complex.

(Description courtesy of Alan Caramatti, our brand-new Program Chair)

 

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Charles Portney on Blueberries July 13th @ 10 am (NB different location!)

For the very last chapter meeting I am solely responsible for arranging (thank you, new Program Chair Alan!) I have managed to persuade the esteemed Charles Portney to speak to us on “38 years of Amateur Blueberry Growing in Southern California”. 
 
I don’t know anyone who has grown as many different varieties of blueberries here, successfully, as Charles has and — bottom line — he is an amusing and highly authoritative speaker on just about anything.  Come to learn how you can grow this healthy and delicious fruit in pots or in the ground…. and, yes, without chemicals or animal-based products.
 
Because Charles will also be speaking at the Festival of Fruit in August, we had to switch our Field Trip month with our Chapter meeting month to accommodate his schedule, hence the July 13th date. 
 
In addition, because our normal Culver City location was already booked, we are — thanks to the hard work of our new Facilities Chair Cat —  able to try a different and temporary location:  the Reed Park Auditorium at 1133 Seventh Street in Santa Monica.  This is just above Wilshire Blvd in downtown Santa Monica;  and while there is some metered street parking on all four sides of the park, there is also parking a few blocks away at either City Parking Structure 9, (1136 4th Street) or the Public Library at 7th Street between Arizona and Santa Monica Boulevard.  Structure 9 is free for the first 90 minutes and then $2.00 for the next half hour and $1.50 for the next, at which point you should probably leave.  The Library lot is free for the first 30 minutes and then $1 for every half hour after that.  BUT the maximum for the whole day is $5 so once you’ve parked at the library, you could come to the meeting and then hit the beach and the Farmer’s Market for hours (or Sidecar Doughnuts across 7th Street from our meeting)
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Meeting June 8th @ 10 am: Dr. Leryn Gorlitsky on the Fig & the Wasp

Dr. Gorlitsky is a Senior Researcher at UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research as well as a lecturer in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (whose mantra is Moving Science to Action) As such, she is intimately engaged in efforts to combat everything from invasive species to mass extinctions. Her specialty of Tropical Ecology, however, intersects with our interest in exactly what is going on in our back forties. She will be lecturing to us on Coevolution, focusing on the interaction between the fig and the wasp.

Margaret’s friend Britten is currently a student in one of Dr. Gorlitsky’s UCLA classes and reports she is both an engaging and incredibly knowledgeable lecturer. This is definitely a meeting not to be missed.

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