Recent Past Meetings

Jeremy Elkin and Justin Sutherlin explored how a collection of fruit trees can become a thriving, resilient edible ecosystem. Learn the principles of food forest design, including plant guilds, soil building, water management, and beneficial companion plants that work together to improve tree health, productivity, and biodiversity.

A panel of chapter members shared their knowledge of a variety of different fruiting plants as well as pruning best practices and propagation techniques such as grafting and air-layering. The panel members were: Don Winterstein, John McNeill, Khaled Hassan, Ty Teissere, Kaz Takata and Jeff Warner.

Steve Jackson covered the basics of how variation of plant traits is affected by DNA. He used this introduction as a basis for discussing how the different types of citrus fruit evolved, and explained how variegated varieties arise. He also introduced how genome modifications can be used to improve crop health.

Laura Holly shared the why when, and how of pruning citrus trees. With over 40 citrus trees at her home, training Master Gardeners how to prune citrus trees, and following the lead of her mentor, Isabel Barkman, Laura explained the dos and don’ts of citrus pruning. 

In our Chapter, we have some expert blueberry growers. At this meeting, we had a chance to ask questions and find out tips and tricks from a panel of blueberry growers: John McNeill, Frank Cooper, Marilynn Seavey and Cindy Shaver.

Fellow OC CRFG member Ty Teissere took us on a journey through the underground environment that helps your fruit trees thrive. He explored soil types, common limiting urban conditions, and the microbiology that steers the whole system.

Volunteers demonstrated six grafting techniques, air-layering and knife sharpening in preparation for the Great Scion Wood Exchange that was held two days later at the Centennial Farm. 

Dennis Sharmahd gave an inspired talk on the many rare fruits and herbs he has collected and is propagating at his farm in Escondido.
Tom Del Hotal, a long time San Diego area CRFG member and educator, connected with us on Zoom from his new residence on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state to give an expansive talk on fruiting species in the Eugenia and Syzygium genera. 

Attendees got to meet three of our four 2025 Cal Poly Pomona scholarship recipients. Dr. Eshwar Ravishankar, CPP professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, gave a presentation on the use of photovoltaic systems in indoor farming. 

Laura Holly, an Orange County Master Gardener and second generation California Rare Fruit Grower, explained and demonstrated why, when, and how to prune fruit trees in the summer.

Mango experts Khaled Hassan and Warren Lau explained how to successfully cultivate mangos in Southern California. We learned about the best mango varieties for our climate, how to propagate them and how to deal with disease issues, such as powdery mildew.

Kelly Gabrysch, known for his YouTube channel FancyPlants, talked about some of the 75+ Eugenia species he is growing in his SoCal garden (plus dozens of different passifloras, annonas, pouterias and psidiums.) 

Eric Middleton, an Integrated Pest Management Advisor with UC Cooperative Extension, talked about the what he had learned growing blueberries at a UC test plot near the flower fields in Carlsbad.

Julie Frink and Denny Luby, two of our chapter's most prominent avocado experts, teamed up to tell us everything they could think of about avocados.

Don Winterstein, a long time chapter member and frequent contributor to the Fruit Gardener, gave us a virtual tour of his renowned orchard in the utility easement behind his backyard.

A fabulous group of volunteers demonstrated various grafting and knife sharpening techniques.

(Click on a meeting title to view the page for that meeting)