Central Coast Chapter Meetings & Other Events
Our Newsletter Keeps Everyone Up To Date. Send Us Your Photos & Events! Let others know what's going on by sending your articles, photos, and event info to: crfgccnewsletter@gmail.com. Please submit your items by the 15th of each month for inclusion in the next newsletter.
December Meeting: Saturday, December 14th, 2024
Annual Holiday Potluck, Annual Elections, and Plant Raffle
Event Details: Chapter Members Only
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Location: The location of our December meeting will be contained in the November newsletter, which will be emailed to all Chapter members.
The online version of the November newsletter on this website will not contain that information.
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Restrooms will be available.
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Schedule:
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11:00-12:00 Setup. Bring in your side dishes and plants.
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12:00-1:00 Holiday Potluck
Please note the following times are approximate. They may be adjusted slightly depending upon how much we are enjoying ourselves:
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1:00- 1:30 Meeting: Announcements, Officer Elections
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1:30-2:30 Plant Raffle
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2:30-3:30 Clean up
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Bring:
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Bring side dishes, salads and desserts. Please label your dishes so people can compliment your cooking skills and also know who the dishes belong to at the end of the day.
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Meats (chicken and ham) and beverages (coffee, sodas and water) will be provided.
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Bring your own utensils and plates.
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Bring your fruit trees and/or edible plants to donate, make sure they are free of pests and weeds, and are labeled with their common and Latin names.
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Bring cash or check for:
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Buying raffle tickets for the edible-plant raffle. The money raised goes to the scholarship fund to help Cal Poly students.
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Pre-order your rootstock.
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We will be selling CRFG hats and CRFG Chapter t-shirts!
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Pre-order for Perfect Blend fertilizer 50 pound bags $20 each.
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Don’t bring pets! Please remember your “Best CRFG Manners While Visiting Homes, Nurseries, Growers, etc. We never bring pets to meetings or tours and we never even ask if we may!”
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We think we will have enough chairs, but you may want to bring your folding chair just in case. You can leave it in your car unless needed.
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A volunteer is needed to chair the Refreshments Committee. You have at least four able and willing committee members to help! For most meetings, you just need to bring water and cups, maybe a few plates and napkins. A little more effort will be needed for members-only meetings such as our yearly BBQ, Scion Exchange Preparation Night (where you will arrange a main dish which could be as simple as ordering pizza and for which you will be reimbursed), and the December potluck. At these meetings you will coordinate with your committee to help members organize their potluck dishes by type, perhaps make an urn of coffee, and make sure all dishes and utensils find their owners at the end of the event. Tables and tablecloths will be provided for you at each meeting. Don’t be shy if you are new to the chapter or think you don’t know much about fruit trees. That’s not a requirement to volunteer. You just need a willingness to help and commit.​
Other Future Chapter Meetings & Events
Please note that these future meetings are subject to change. Recheck this page closer to the date of each event.
More information about these events, including address details and times, will be provided here closer to each event.
Orchard Work Day: January 4th, 2025 - Saturday 9 am - Noon
Open to the public.
CRFG Demonstration Orchard
Cal Poly Campus
Help clean up the orchard for our Annual Pruning Meeting!
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January Meeting: Annual Pruning Meeting, January 11th, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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February Meeting: Annual Scion Exchange & Grafting Demos, February 22, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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Orchard Work Day: March 1st, 2025 - Saturday 9 am - Noon
Open to the public.
CRFG Demonstration Orchard
Cal Poly Campus
Help clean up the orchard!
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March Meeting: Annual Propagation Meeting, March 8, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
Location: Master Gardeners' Garden of the Seven Sisters
2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo, CA, 93401
More details, including times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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April Meeting: TBD, April 12, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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May Meeting: Tiber Canyon Ranch, May 10, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
280 West Ormonde Road, San Luis Obispo, CA
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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June Meeting: TBD, June 14, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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Orchard Work Day: July 5th, 2025 - Saturday 9 am - Noon
Open to the public.
CRFG Demonstration Orchard
Cal Poly Campus
Help clean up the orchard for our Annual Fruit Tasting Meeting!
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July Meeting: Annual Fruit Tasting at the CRFG Demonstration Orchard, July 12, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Bring fruit to share, and enjoy the fruit brought by others.
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.​
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August Meeting: TBD, August 9, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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September Meeting: TBD, September 13, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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October Meeting: TBD, October 11, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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Orchard Work Day: November 1st, 2025 - Saturday 9 am - Noon
Open to the public.
CRFG Demonstration Orchard
Cal Poly Campus
Help clean up the orchard!
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November Meeting: LeFort Organic Farms, November 8, 2025 - Saturday
Open to the public.
Le Fort's Organic Farms is a certified organic farm in Creston, California which produces free range eggs, carrots, summer squash, eggplant, basil & more .
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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December Meeting: Annual Holiday Potluck and Plant Exchange, December 13, 2025 - Saturday
Members Only. Join CRFG to attend!
More details, including location & times, will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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CRFG Demonstration Orchard Workdays
Be sure to check here the morning of each workday for rescheduling or cancellations.
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Orchard cleanups usually involve removing weeds, spreading wood chips, pruning trees, raking leaves, mending fences, cleaning the kiosk, reorganizing tools in the tool shed. It's also a good opportunity to chat with your fellow CRFGers, learning and sharing helpful hints for growing your fruiting plants.
Sat Oct 26th, 2024 9am - 12pm (end-of-year cleanup)
Sat Jan 4th, 2025 9am - 12pm (cleanup for Annual Pruning Mtg)
Sat Mar 1st, 2025 9am - 12pm (cleanup for Annual Propagation Mtg)
Sat July 5th, 2025 9am - 12pm (cleanup for Annual Fruit Tasting Mtg)
Sat Nov 1st, 2025 9am - 12pm (end-of-year cleanup)
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We Have Pheromone Loops For Sale!!!
Pheromone loops are available and are plentiful! Codling moths are key pests of apples and pears. Pheromone loops deceive the male moth, thereby helping to disrupt the mating cycle. Place 2 to 3 loops in the top third of your apple and pear trees. Petals should be about 90% off and small fruit is setting before you loop your trees!
Please contact Terri Monell at 805-546-8981 (landline) or 805-440-5818 (cell) if you are interested. Terri is available to sell loops ONLY until April 24th and then again from May 1st on.
We Have Rootstock For Sale!!!
You Can Still Buy Rootstock, And It's Already Been Potted For You!
Price: $5/potted rootstock.
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Send your purchase request to Manny: mannym25@gmail.com
Please include your full name, phone number, and type and quantity of rootstock.
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Apple: M.7 EMLA
Semi-dwarf rootstock, Produces trees about 50-60% of standard. Good resistance to collar rot and fireblight and adapts well to a wide range of soil types and climates. Has a tendency to sucker.
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Sweet Cherry: Prunus avium, “Mazzard”
The most-common standard-size sweet-cherry rootstock. Produces a very vigorous tree with good anchorage. Some tolerance to root fungus. Will grow on a wide range of soils.
Plum/Apricot:
Prunus Marianna 2624
Compatible with plums, apricots, some almonds. Not compatible with peaches and nectarines. Produces a semi-dwarf tree well adapted to many different soil types. Can be shallow rooted the first couple years and susceptible to leaning until established so staking may be necessary. Somewhat prone to suckering. Tolerates wet soils. Resistant to root knot nematodes, lightly resistant to phytophthora, but prone to bacterial canker.
Prunus mariana GF 8-1
Produces a standard sized tree (10 – 15 ft). Is very robust and adapts to all types of soil. Mariana produces good crops of plums, but doesn’t anchor well when it is young and tends to produce root suckers. It resists root knot nematodes, root asphyxia, oak root fungus, crown gall, and prune brown line, but is susceptible to bacterial cankers.
Meetings
Our meetings are usually held on the second Saturday of the month, with the exception of the February meeting which is held on the third Saturday. (The February meeting is the annual scion exchange and grafting instruction.) In general our group gathers initially for refreshments and socializing, followed by the meeting. This is not always the case though, so check this web page or our newsletter for details on each meeting.
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Most of our meetings are open to the public. We encourage the public to join us and learn with us!
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Please read our "meeting manners" below prior to attending. No pets at any meeting, please.
Our Best CRFG Manners While Visiting Homes, Nurseries, Growers, etc.
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We never bring pets to meetings/tours and we never even ask if we may!
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We do our best to use public facilities or our own restroom before the meeting.
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We do our best not to ask to go inside the hosts’ home.
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We never pick fruit, flowers, foliage, weeds, seed pods and we never even ask.
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We do our best to car pool and park with great respect to our host and the neighborhood.
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We never talk when our host is talking. We do our best to stay up close when given a tour.
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We never “take over” the tour and tell everyone how we do it at our home!!
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We have thoughtful questions but try not to ask questions that embarrass our host.
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We do our best to help our host feel good, feel appreciated. We clean up our mess.
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We stay on the path, with our host …and never go walking around on our own unless given permission by the host.
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At the end of the tour, we make a special effort to thank the host. We “gather up” and have some sort of “closure” to the tour.
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We even write thank you notes when we get home, especially if we asked a lot of questions, were impressed, were surprised, were treated well. We write thank you notes even when we are not the leader.