Recent Past Meetings


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)