California Rare Fruit Growers, San Diego Chapter

12/01/2025

If you are looking for perlite in North county, Aztec is out until next week. Grangettos has some though, size 3.

03/12/2024

Please take some action to keep your damaged fruit off the ground and out of the reach of fruit flies. There are 7 fruit fly Quarantines in California at the moment and if you don't care and help, you may have to get fruit from other states, as farmers here won't be growing and moving fruit with the fruit flies without a LOT of spraying. At the Citrus day meeting they were talking about a newly approved treatment involving phosphine gas. This is serious folks, and smaller growers will NOT be able to afford this.Please help your farmers keep growing!

California is experiencing an unusually high number of invasive fruit fly detections this season. The California Department of Food and Agricultural (CDFA), in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and County Agricultural Commissioners, has initiated local regulatory me...

07/22/2022

FYI for anyone growing figs and encountering silba adipata ( black fig fly), this is the place to check for updates on treatments and events.

Very little has been reported on the natural enemies of BFF. Multiple researchers have encountered BFF pupae that had been parasitized by Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae Rondani (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), but the implications of this were unclear since P. vindemmiae is a generalist that attacks more th...

06/20/2022

Hey everyone, just saw a post about someone picking up some Elderberries from Specialty Produce to try and she ate them raw. It's really important if you are trying new things to know a little bit about them. Elderberries should never be eaten raw, there are toxic things in the plant, even in the seeds that can make you ill. Here is an informative web site that will help you understand how to eat elderberries and how NOT to. Be safe out there! https://normsfarms.com/blogs/growing-and-harvesting-elderberry/are-elderberry-bushes-poisonous

06/07/2022

A Legend Has Passed -- Leo Manuel

Leo Manuel, one of our founding members has passed and CRFG will miss him greatly.

From my readings Leo was ahead of his time with mango growing. I read Leo was eating hundreds of mangos a year grown from his yard. A lot of San Diegians are still trying to figure out if mangos will grow here.

Lots of members have told me he was so generous giving tours of his yard.

I was talking to one member who knew Leo well and he said Jim Nietzel was the dictionary and Leo was the encyclopedia of rare fruit growing. Leo had a passion for Dragon Fruit also and was generous with his knowledge on his webpage.

Rest in peace Leo, you will be sorely missed. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.

05/04/2022

Next guest speaker at our May monthly chapter meeting. Marta Matveinko live on Zoom
Growing uncommon subtropical fruits in the Central Valley



I will discuss the growing and fruiting of various subtropical fruits in the conditions of the Central Valley. While our climate may be the best for a variety of stone fruits, melons, grapes, pomegranates, citrus, and mulberries, it also allows for the growing of many uncommon subtropicals. I will cover my experience with growing Kei Apple, Surinam Cherry, various guavas, feijoa, Oak Leaf papaya, loquat, white sapote, avocado, and some other rare fruits. Planting fruits for various fruiting seasons has allowed me to create a year-round fruit harvest.

Marta

Marta Matvienko, PhD

Plant Shop: reallygoodplants.com
Genomics Consulting: polytyped.com

Gardening Blog: https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matvienko/

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