Subject: Fruit growing organizations discussion

From: [email-masked] (Larry London)
Date: 9 Aug 1993 23:16:02 GMT

Article 20704 of rec.gardens:
From: [email-masked] (Alice Ramirez)
Subject: California Rare Fruit Growers
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 93 19:01:27 GMT
Lines: 62

From: [email-masked] (Matt Heffron)
In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kelly F.) writes:

>California Rare Fruit Growers
>Fullerton Arboretum, CSFU
>Fullerton, CA 92634
>This club has a world-wide membership base and is very knowledgable

Yes, don't let its name fool you.  It has members all over the country, 
and indeed as far away as Africa, Czeckoslovakia and Australia.
Whether or not it is a larger group than NAFEX I don't know, but my 
beloved weird fruit group is a very vigourous entity.

>(Its $16 annual, US, which includes 6 issues of 'The Fruit Gardener'
>which is a color magazine, also a seed bank and seed exchange.)

The seed exchange alone is worth the price of admission.  

>>I'm a member, great organization!

Me, too.
This will sound bizarre, but for some of us, it's almost a cult.  I first
joined the organization on a whim.  I like fruit, I thought it would be
fun.  I might have, as easily at the time, joined a herb or bonsai group.  
Instead,I joined CRFG.  Within about 2 months, I turned completely into 
a crazed fruit maniac.  All other gardening interests dropped away.  

Everything I read of a horticultural nature, from then on, was related 
to fruit--especially, weird fruit.

Most of my personal friends are now weird fruiters.  

Grass disappeared from my yard, flowerbeds shrank.  Other than a few 
tomato vines, leaf lettuce in the winter and onions (to stave off aphids), 
a few herbs, my entire property is planted over to fruit trees.  

I now name my naranjillas

I now have to be careful among non-weird-fruiters.  If they are gardeners,
I try to convert them.  If they ask what I grow and I tell them, their eyes
glass over.  It is such a habit of mine now to assume that EVERYBODY knows
pittaya from pitomba, and an intellectual, if not gardening acquaintance
with jaboticaba. It shocks me when they don't.  I seek out new weird
fruit to taste or better yet to grow.  Thanks to CRFG, weird-fruiting 
has become something of an addiction with me.

Having local chapter meetings are worth attending for the fruit tasting
table alone.  It was at these that I tasted my first kei apple, 
surinam cherry, Diospyros lotus and my durian.   

>>I posted the membership info and application for CRFG a few months ago;
>>if anyone wants one, email me (I won't repost unless I get a lot of
>>interest).

Anyone with an interest in fruit growing should join.  (oops,there I 
go again)

>For those of you in southern california, CRFG will have their 25th
>anniversary celebration in Thousand Oaks, CA, which includes tours,
>plant and book sales, and food. 

Article 20706 of rec.gardens:
From: [email-masked] (James M Hoskins)
Subject: Re: California Rare Fruit Growers
Date: 3 Aug 1993 20:24:29 GMT
Lines: 36

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (A
lice Ramirez) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (Matt Heffron)
>In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kelly F.) writes:
>
California Rare Fruit Growers
Fullerton Arboretum, CSFU
Fullerton, CA 92634

This club has a world-wide membership base and is very knowledgable
>
>Yes, don't let its name fool you.  It has members all over the country,
>and indeed as far away as Africa, Czeckoslovakia and Australia.
>Whether or not it is a larger group than NAFEX I don't know, but my
>beloved weird fruit group is a very vigourous entity.
>
>>(Its $16 annual, US, which includes 6 issues of 'The Fruit Gardener'
>>which is a color magazine, also a seed bank and seed exchange.)
>
>The seed exchange alone is worth the price of admission.
>
>>>I'm a member, great organization!
>
>Me, too.

>From the Ohio Heartland, where a tree-ripened pear or peach may be
considered rare, if not endangered, fruit:

I guess I'm a member of CRFG too, but I only joined in order to receive
the "Fruit Gardener" magazine.  It is a FANTASTIC publication.  Beautifully
edited and illustrated with articles of interest to people at all stages
of gardening and horticultural knowledge and experience.   Membership is
well worth $16 for the magazine alone.

JH

Article 20657 of rec.gardens:
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Re: Rare Fruit growing article
From: [email-masked] (Matt Heffron)
Date: 2 Aug 1993 11:51:16 -0700
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Lines: 56

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kelly F.) writes:
  [...]
>---------
>Clubs:
>---------

>California Rare Fruit Growers
>Fullerton Arboretum, CSFU
>Fullerton, CA 92634
>This club has a world-wide membership base and is very knowledgable
>about rare plants. Send a SASE for inquiries.
>(Its $16 annual, US, which includes 6 issues of 'The Fruit Gardener'
>which is a color magazine, also a seed bank and seed exchange.)

I'm a member, great organization!
I posted the membership info and application for CRFG a few months ago;
if anyone wants one, email me (I won't repost unless I get a lot of
interest).

>For those of you in southern california, CRFG will have their 25th
>anniversary celebration in Thousand Oaks, CA, which includes tours,
>plant and book sales, and food. 

  [...]

>-----------
>Nurseries:
>----------- 

  [...]

>Atkins Nursery Inc
>3129 Reche Rd
>Fallbrook, CA 92028
>(619) 728-1610

Very helpful and knowledgable staff.  Last fall they were growing a
mango with FIVE POUND FRUIT!!!!  I think it was going to be available
as grafted trees this year.  Prices MUCH BETTER than home centers or
local nurseries.

>Orange County Source
>Roger and Shirley Meyer
>16531 Mt Shelly Circle
>Fountain Valley, CA 92708

Roger Meyer is probably THE expert on Kiwi in California (if not US).
He has many varieties most people have never heard of.
(How about a red or orange fruit kiwi, to color coordinate that
fruit salad!? :-)  I don't think these were in production yet :-(
(either fruit or plants).)
-- 
Matt Heffron                      [email-masked]
Beckman Instruments, Inc.         voice: (714) 961-3128
2500 N. Harbor Blvd. MS X-11, Fullerton, CA 92634-3100
I don't speak for Beckman Instruments unless they say so.

Article 20764 of rec.gardens:
Subject: Re: California Rare Fruit Growers
From: [email-masked] (Matt Heffron)
Date: 4 Aug 1993 14:28:53 -0700
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Lines: 29

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Nicki A Stassen Lantz) writes:

>Oh, one last note: I wrote last fall (I think) to the Pacific Tree Farm in CA
>because I was really interested in buying a chocolate tree. They sent me back a
>catalog with a note that they were going out of business and everything was a %
>off the listed price.

>Not many places sell chocolate plants, so I was bummed to hear this news.
>Needless to say, I didn't place an order, and I'm wondering if anyone out there
>in CA knows if they managed to get back on their feet or not....

They did survive!!  One of the employees bought the business.
It was 'announced' in the "Fruit Gardener" :-)

Pacific Tree Farms
4301 Lynwood Drive
Chula Vista, CA 91910
(619) 422-2400
Closed Tuesday
Catalog $2.00

>NA Stassen lantz
>Programmer/Analyst
>The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH    Zone 5
-- 
Matt Heffron                      [email-masked]
Beckman Instruments, Inc.         voice: (714) 961-3128
2500 N. Harbor Blvd. MS X-11, Fullerton, CA 92634-3100
I don't speak for Beckman Instruments unless they say so.

---

From: [email-masked] (Larry London)
Date: 9 Aug 1993 23:16:50 GMT

Article 20470 of rec.gardens:
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Fruit tree grafting - tips from limited experience
From: [email-masked] (Matt Heffron)
Date: 28 Jul 1993 11:56:22 -0700
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Lines: 103

I received a few requests for grafting tips, so, based on LIMTED
experience (2 years), here goes...

* Sterility of the tools is important to MAKE SURE that there is no
  chance of any possible contamination of the graft.  I use a spray
  bottle (e.g. like for window cleaner) with a 10-15% chlorine bleach
  solution (i.e. between 1:5 and 1:9 bleach-to-water ratio).  Spray
  the tools between EVERY GRAFT.

* Use a SHARP knife for making the cuts.  If you don't use a
  grafting knife then use a knife with a thin stiff blade and a
  good, solid handle that you can really hold onto.  A kitchen
  paring knife might be OK if the blade is thin and stiff, a hobby
  knife usually has too small (thin) a handle, a retractable utility
  knife (the kind with the 1x2" trapezoidal blades) works well, but
  make a few cuts in scrap wood first to get the oil off of the blade.
  I use the utility knife.

For a whip (splice) graft:

* Choose the location on the stock to graft, correctly.  It MUST be
  pointing as close to vertical as possible.

* Try to match the diameter of the scion to the stock as much as you
  can.  The best size for the scion is about the same as a pencil
  (.25"x7") before you make your cut.  (You really only want about 3
  buds on the scion when you're done, but start with extra length to
  work with making the cut.  I NEVER get a good cut the first try.)

* Cut the stock first.  Then cut the scion, so that the buds point in
  the direction you want (i.e. away from the center of the tree, and not
  pointed to cross other branches.)  Try to make both cuts the same
  length.

* Be sure to cut the bottom of the scion (with some plants it's hard
  to tell which end is UP).

* You MUST match the cambium layer in the stock and the scion.  (The
  cambium is the layer just below the bark.)  If you can't match both
  sides of a cut because of different diameters, then match as much
  as you can of one side.  DON'T just center the scion on the stock.

* Using vinyl grafting tape (not teflon plumbers tape, it looks right
  but it isn't strong enough), wrap the graft snugly to hold the scion
  to the stock.  Be sure to cover the entire cut area, if the cut is
  exposed, it'll either dry out or get infected, either way you lose.

* Cut the exposed scion down to 3 buds.  More doesn't help.  It
  divides the energy going into the scion.

* HINT NOT IN ANY GRAFTING BOOKS! *
  Take a 2x4" piece of PARAFILM laboratory film, stretch it lengthwise
  (into a 2x10" approx piece), and wrap the whole graft and scion, all
  the way over the end of the scion (i.e. a spiral wrap).  This helps
  keep the scion from drying out, and you can leave it on since the
  buds can grow right through the PARAFILM, and it eventually just
  breaks down.  You should be able to get PARAFILM from chemist or
  biology friends or lab stockrooms or lab supply companies.  Try
  friends first, you have to buy it in 125 or 250 FOOT rolls. (That's
  750 to 1500 grafts!)

* Leave the tape on the graft as long as you can.  Until it looks like
  it is girdling (strangling) the branch.

* When the new growth is about 12-14 inches, pinch off the tips of the
  growth to force it to branch out.  I'm told this will result in a
  healthier, more productive limb later on.

* If it is growing really well, tie the limb to a stake to support it
  so the new growth doesn't get too heavy for the graft joint to hold
  up, especially if it's windy where you are.  (I lost 2 grafts this
  way.)

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN TO GRAFT IS TO BE SHOWN BY SOMEONE.
It's not as hard as it sounds, watching someone do it really helps.

A couple of other grafting points.

Grafting does not cause the fruit produced to be some sort of hybrid
between the stock tree and the scion type.  The fruit will be exactly
the scion type.

You can graft most stone fruits onto each other: peach, nectarine,
apricot, plum, almond.  Although some will take better than others.
(E.g., European plums and Oriental plums don't seem to graft together
well.)

You can also graft apple varieties onto each other, pear varieties onto
each other (including asian pears (yummm!)), and some apples and pears
onto each other.

You can bud graft any citrus onto any other citrus.  (There are
probably exceptions, but I haven't heard of 'em.)

That's enough for now.  (I've really got to do some REAL work... :-)