Natural Beekeeping Conference – January 18th & 19th – 8 am to 5 pm

Another non-CRFG activity but I attended the last HoneyLove conference a couple of years ago and if you are keeping bees or are interested in the girls pollinating your trees, it should definitely NOT be missed.

SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS:
• Michael Bush
• Les Crowder
• Dr. May Berenbaum
• Robin Jones
• Michael Thiele
• Sam Comfort
• Laura Bee Ferguson
• Kate Franzman
• Solomon Parker
• Sarah Red-Laird
• Amanda Shaw
• Jacqueline Freeman
• Anna Marie Despiris
• Fonta Molyneauxis
• Matt Reed
Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
• Rob and Chelsea McFarland
…plus a stellar lineup of your local favorites in our Breakout Room!
Stay tuned… new speakers are being added daily!! 

 

Natural Beekeeping Conference

Fruit Tree Pruning Demonstration – Sunday, January 19th, 2PM to 4PM

Do you have fruit trees or fruiting vines you are interested in pruning?  Do you have questions such as: How do I plan and prepare for an orchard?   How do I get a bountiful crop?   What do I need to know before pruning? What are the best times to prune?   What is winter chill?   How is it effecting your crop?

If so, join Greener Way Associates, located at 10708 Northgate Street, Culver City 90230 for a pruning demonstration.  Landscape Architect and Consulting Arborist Pieter Severynen will hold a fruit tree pruning demonstration in the Culver City Greener Way, which will include tree shapes, long-term health and maintenance techniques, pruning tools, and decisions to make before pruning.  Stay for refreshments and Pieter will answer your questions!

Pieter has been pruning fruit trees for over 50 years. He teaches arboriculture at UCLA. He has represented the American Society of Landscape Architects in the preparation of the recently published 10th Edition of the Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers, prestigiously rated “Guide for Plant Appraisal” which shows tree appraisers how to evaluate trees. He maintains an active consulting practice, writes tree reports, advises homeowners on planting and maintenance of fruit and shade trees, holds tree pruning demonstrations, and lectures on climate change.   In this hands-on demonstration, Pieter will welcome questions specific to your trees!

This is not a CRFG activity; however, it is highly recommended!

Suggested donation for this jam-packed session is $20.  To RSVP for the Culver City address or for more information email: Suzanne@GreenerWayAssociates.org or Phone/text: 310-204-0570

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

 

Field Trip to La Verne Nursery! November 9th @ 9 am (Note new time)

This field trip is for WLA and LA chapter members ONLY.   The online address per Google Maps is WRONG.   The nursery has been without electricity due to wind/fires. Specific directions and actual available plants will be emailed to you as soon as the nursery can get them to us.

We will have a tour of La Verne Nursery at their huge Piru Facility.  La Verne is one of the premier sources of tropical and subtropical fruiting plants in our area.  We all probably have at least a plant or two from their nursery.  Daniel Nelson, Director of Nursery Operations, will be our tour guide.  He will discuss such topics as mass propagation, container culture, and specific care instructions for various fruit trees, as well as answer any questions our members may have.  This is a rare chance to see how a large nursery goes about producing many thousands of plants a year and to learn from Dann’s professional expertise.  We will be able to see their propagation facilities and techniques.  Perhaps we will see how their nursery grafts new scion wood to rootstock.

Although La Verne Nursery does not sell retail, as special guests we will be able to purchase trees after the tour at near-wholesale prices.  The last time we purchased trees from La Verne Nursery, the plants were large, healthy, and beautiful!  Everyone was immensely pleased with the plants purchased.

You can pre-order any plants that you want (before we get to the nursery).  Go online to see what plants are available at: http://www.lavernenursery.com/current-availability.html.    This list shows what plants the nursery has in abundance and may not include all the possibilities you will find when you are there.  As noted above, we will receive a more complete list of available trees by the end of this week and that list will be emailed to you as soon as it is received.  Please note that you cannot order online. Select your plants and email Susan Guggenheim to tell her what plants you want to order.

All sales will be cash; buyers will be responsible for paying for and transporting their own purchases at the end of the tour.

The nursery is some distance from West LA, so plan to carpool.   Members of the LA Chapter are welcome.  Only CRFG members may attend the field trip.

 

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)

 

Field Trip 9-14-19 @ 10am to Long Beach VA Patients’ Garden

From our new Field Trip Chair Jane:

“On Saturday September 14 at 10 am, the WLA Chapter will visit the Patient Garden at the Long Beach Veterans Medical Center, 5901 E. 7th Street Long Beach 90822.  The garden’s purpose is therapy, rehabilitation, and enjoyment of the veterans. They have a mixture of vegetables, ornamentals and fruit trees; several structures provide for greenhouse, hothouse , and propagation space.

I was surprised that the several members I spoke to didn’t know of its existence; maybe I have had more injured Vets in my life. After the loss of the WLA  VA Garden I want to make sure we know about this one before it is ever threatened.  The will be no lecture-like tour but perhaps we could talk about land closer to us where we could make some contribution.

Please try to carpool.( At the next meeting I am going to have people clustered by neighborhood to facilitate carpooling in the future.)  I will bring our chapter’s big water jug with ice and lemons.  PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN CUP, a chair if you can, and fruit to share out of hand.

For a second activity, some carpools might want to go south to Westminster for supermarkets and other fruit markets.  Going north I suggest stopping the International Garden Center, 155 N Pacific Coast Highway, El Segundo 90245.  Sepulveda becomes N PCH in El Segundo.  I treat myself to a visit here when I take someone to LAX.  While there is nothing particularly International about it, they have a wide range of products: trees, perennials, fruits, vegetables, seeds, bulbs, and my favorite Annies’ Annuals.

(Enter the VA facility by the 7th Street entrance.   Veer to the right  and stay to the right making only right turns when a turn is necessary.  The garden is in the north/east corner of the campus and parking is on the ride hand side of the street . There is a water tower quite close  I always look up to verify my location.)”

Field Trip & Ice Cream Social August 10th @ 10 a.m.

Once again, we are heading down the driveway to convene  in my Back Forty where — at last — I will have  the time to explain what is actually going on there (the cherimoyas and papayas from spit-out seeds, the ridiculous bay laurels, the Pink Passion passiflora that is eating my house,  the Fire Crystal that is, hey,  growing new leaves).   There are also a ton of lemons, limes, tangerines and blood oranges, a monster Black Mission fig, an equally monstrous Saijo persimmon, several apples that will have just finished bearing, ditto the mulberry.  The loquats are long done, the litchi and sapodilla are still too young.  My  homemade beehive is behind a gate and faced in the other direction so no worries.

The Front Forty with my green fig trees, young Hachiya persimmon, another not so happy Fire Crystal, banana plantation and avocado mountains will be taped off because of the number of fragile new plantings and grafts there.  I can however explain most of it from the driveway and sidewalk and will lead small groups through if desired.  It and the adjacent parkway are  full of California natives and therefore butterflies, bees and birds, oh my.

Around 11, the vanilla ice cream will arrive (with bowls and spoons)  and we will share  all the sauces we have made from the fruits of our orchards.  Or actually any topping you want to bring.  If you happen to be lactose intolerant, you are welcome to bring whatever iced alternative you desire.  Yogurt will also not be shunned. Fun in the sun! (Thank you, Fang, for suggesting this.)

PS. There should definitely be some Gros Michel pups for our silent auction.

 

 

 

Photo by Dana DeVolk on Unsplash

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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