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.
Orchard Maintenance: Saturday, February 7th, 2026, 9am - Noon
CRFG Demonstration Orchard
Event Details
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Location: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo campus
Website: crfg-central.org/orchard
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This is a great opportunity to talk with your fellow CRFG members, swap plant information, and share plant stories.
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The public is welcome! Bring a friend.
​We will provide snacks!​
​​​​​Maintenance Tasks: We'll be pruning the trees with an eye for removing broken and dead branches and reducing tree height. We'll keep and package-up scions for the Scion Exchange. Also on the list: remove weeds and suckers, cut the passionfruit off of some peach trees, and inspect fence for necessary repairs.​
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Bring: Please bring your gloves, hand pruners, loppers, and saws, and your favorite weed removal tools such as shovels and hoes. You may want to mark them with your name so we know to whom they belong. Also bring your water bottle, and shoes and clothes for working in dirt.
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Restrooms: We have requested that the restrooms at the Crops Unit be open, but there is no guarantee.
Location & Directions
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We will have signs out to help guide you.
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Directions:
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1. In San Luis Obispo, take Santa Rosa St. (aka Hwy 1) to Highland Drive.
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2. Turn right onto Highland Drive.
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3. Proceed until you see a CRFG parking sign on the right. Park in the dirt area along the fence, out of the way of the bike lane and foot path. This is the area marked in orange on the adjacent map.
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4. Walk back up Highland Dr. to the orchard.
February Meeting: Annual Scion Exchange & Grafting Demos, February 28th, 2026
Open to the Public
This is our Chapter's biggest single event, free to members of our chapter and the public. It is held on the fourth Saturday of February and takes place on the Cal Poly campus at the Crops Unit.
A portion of the money raised from this event goes toward scholarships for Cal Poly Fruit Science students.
Cash or checks preferred. Credit cards, Zelle, Square, and Venmo will be accepted.
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Restrooms will be available.
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Schedule
(10:00: Members volunteering for set-up should arrive.)
11:00
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Grafting demonstrations, store, and rootstock sales begin.
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People with scion wood to share should drop the scions off at the scion exchange room door. Members will be there to receive them.
12:00 - Chapter members and people who contributed scions get early entry into the scion exchange room.
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12:30 - All attendees are welcome to enter the scion exchange room.
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3:00 - End of Scion Exchange. Clean up begins.
About The Scion Exchange
At the scion exchange you will find rows of tables laden with bags of scion wood from a wide variety of trees. Attendees are invited to select and take home scions to graft to their own fruit trees, and to bring scions to share.
If you bring scions to share, make sure your scions are free of pests and diseases. Do NOT bring any citrus, due to concern for spreading diseases. Do not bring any varieties that still have active patents. You can check patent information in this Excel file.
You will find demonstrations by experienced grafters who will show various grafting techniques. These volunteers are members of CRFG and will do their best to answer your grafting questions!
At our store, we also sell rootstock, grafting tape, buddy tape, grafting "goop," grafting knives, bird netting, and pheromone loops and for control of the apple worm.
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For photos and details about what a scion exchange is like, what you want to bring with you, and how to package any scions you have to share, please see our Scion Exchange webpage.
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Interested in low chill varieties? See our document on low chill varieties put together by our co-chair Linda Robertson.
Our chapter is a non-profit organization, and this event is made possible entirely through the efforts of dedicated members, all volunteers. We sincerely thank them for generously sharing their time and expertise to make this event happen year after year.
Location & Directions
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We will have signs out to help guide you.
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There will be no charge for parking this Saturday.
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Important: Parking in the H1 parking lot on Mt. Bishop Drive is the only option.
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Do not park alongside Mt. Bishop Rd or Highland Dr as people have done in the past: you will get ticketed.
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Due to construction, parking is no longer available at the Crops Unit.
Directions:
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1. In San Luis Obispo, take Santa Rosa St. (aka Hwy 1) to Highland Drive.
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2. Turn east onto Highland Drive.
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3. Turn left at Mt. Bishop Rd.
4. In approximately 900 feet, you will see the H1 parking lot on your left. Park in the parking lot.
5. Walk back down Mt. Bishop Rd. to the Scion Exchange, located in the Crops Unit at the corner of Highland Dr. and Mt. Bishop Rd.
Scion Exchange Map
The Festival of Fruit is Coming in 2026!
The Orange County Chapter is thrilled to announce the 2026 Festival of Fruit celebrating the Year of Eugenia and her Sisters will take place on Saturday, June 13, 2026.
Mark your calendars for this exciting event to be held at the Titan Student Union at Cal State Fullerton.
Beautiful garden tours and commercial visits will be offered prior to the festival date, so plan to arrive a few days early to take advantage of these special activities.
More details will be announced by the Orange County Chapter as they develop.
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.
All meetings are on Saturdays unless otherwise noted below.​​
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March 14, 2026 Meeting: Annual Propagation Meeting
We will propagate plants and graft rootstock.
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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April 11th, 2026 Meeting: Russee's Home Garden
Chapter member Russee welcomes visitors into his garden, sharing his deep expertise in plant cultivation and care.
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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May May 9th, 2026 Meeting: TBD
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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June 13, 2026 Meeting: Festival of Fruit at Cal State Fullerton
We will not have a local meeting in June.
All members are encouraged to attend the Festival of Fruit!
More details will be announced by the Orange County Chapter as they develop.
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July 11, 2026 Meeting: Annual Fruit Tasting in the CRFG Orchard
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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August 8, 2026 Meeting: TBD
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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September 12, 2026 Meeting: TBD
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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October 10, 2026 Meeting: TBD
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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November 14, 2026 Meeting: TBD
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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December 12, 2026 Meeting: Annual Potluck & Plant Exchange
Members only.
More details will be listed here closer to the date of this event.
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.
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Sat Feb 7th, 2026: 9am - 12pm (Winter pruning and maintenance)
Sat Mar 7, 2026: 9am - 12pm (Pre-Spring cleanup)
Sunday July 5th, 2026: 9am - 12pm (cleanup for Annual Fruit Tasting Mtg)
Sat Nov 7th, 2026: 9am - 12pm (end-of-year cleanup)
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.
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 fourth Saturday. (The February meeting is the annual scion exchange and grafting workshop.) 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.