Central Coast Chapter Meetings & Other Events
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February Meeting: Annual Scion Exchange & Grafting Demos, February 17th, 2024
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 third Saturday of February and takes place on the Cal Poly campus at the Crops Unit.
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A portion of the money raised from this event goes toward scholarships for Cal Poly Fruit Science students.
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Please bring cash or checks. Sorry, no credit cards will be accepted.
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Schedule
10:00: Members who would like to volunteer with set-up should arrive
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11:00: People with scion wood to share with the exchange should arrive
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12:00: Chapter members and people who contributed get early entry into the exchange
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12:30: All guests are welcome to enter the exchange
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3:30: Meeting ends. Clean up begins.
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If you arrive early (11am) to donate scion wood, you can explore the outdoor events while you wait for the opening of the scion exchange room at noon! There will be grafting demonstrations, a store, and rootstock sales!
Location
Crops Science (Building 17-J) on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus, corner of Highland Drive and Mt. Bishop Drive.
Parking will be free. Park in the dirt lot in front of the Crops Unit (see map). Do NOT park next to fire hydrants where curbs are painted RED. You will be towed.
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If that lot is full, park in the H1 parking lot on Mt. Bishop Rd, and walk back to the Crop Science unit.
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 (note that we cannot share citrus due to concern for spreading diseases, and nor any patented varieties of any fruit).
You will also find demonstrations by experienced grafters who will demonstrate 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, budding 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, you want to bring with you, and how to package any scions you have to share, please see our Scion Exchange webpage.
March Propagation Meeting, March 9, 2024
Open to the public.
More information about this event, including times, will be provided here as it becomes available.
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Our annual propagation meeting will be held at demonstration garden of the Master Gardeners of SLO County, the "Garden of the Seven Sisters." The garden is located next to the San Luis Obispo County offices at 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo, CA.
This year our guest speaker will be Elizabeth Johnson, organizer of the San Luis Obispo Seed Exchange.
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After Elizabeth's talk, we will be propagating many different types of fruiting plants via cuttings and seeds. Come join us!
CRFG Demonstration Orchard Workdays
Saturday, March 2nd, 2024 9am - 12pm
Sat July 6th, 2024 9am - 12pm
Sat Oct 26th, 2024 9am - 12pm
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.