Welcome to the website of the California Rare Fruit Growers!

The California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) is the largest amateur fruit-growing organization in the world. We specialize in fruit not native to nor grown commercially in any given area; but our breadth of knowledge and experience covers the environmentally sound culture of any and all edible plants.  What we have learned is exchanged on this website, in our magazine The Fruit Gardener, on field trips and at meetings of our 23 chapters (not all in California!).  There we get to go face to face with noted international horticultural researchers, commercial growers, and representatives from institutions of higher learning… not to mention our passionate fellow hobbyists.  In addition, we run the annual Festival of Fruit,  have photography contests, grant college scholarships,  and hold our famous scion exchanges. Come on in!  The fruit is fine.

Please note:  We are a non-profit organization. We are not a business and do not sell fruit or fruit trees. We do hold annual scion exchanges at our chapters’ January or February meetings, where CRFG members can exchange scion wood and learn how to graft it to their own fruit trees. The chapters also host public meetings to educate those interested in learning how to grow and propagate fruit.

 

2024 Scion Exchanges

  1. The world-famous CRFG Scion Exchanges are once again about to begin.  Please check the relevant chapter websites for more information.  Here are the dates we have so far:

January 13: Arizona – 10 AM – 1 PM, Valley Garden Center, 1809 N 15th Ave, Phoenix, Includes propagation demonstrations for grafting, rooting, air-layering

January 20: Orange County – 10AM – Noon, Orange County Fairgrounds, Millennium Barn

January 27: Los Angeles – 10 AM, Sepulveda Garden Center, 16633 Magnolia Blvd, Encino

January 27: Monterey Bay – Soquel High School, 401 Soquel-San Jose Road, Soquel

January 27: North San Diego – 10-12. See chapter website for more info.

February 3: Foothill Chapter – 10 AM – Noon, LA County Arboretum, 301 N Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, Palm Room classroom. The Arboretum will charge non-chapter members $15 admission; they have a list of Foothill Chapter members who get in free.

February 3: Santa Clara Valley – 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM, Palo Alto Buddhist Temple Gym, 2751 Louis Rd, Palo Alto

February 3: Inland Empire – Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District in Riverside

February 4: Sacramento, La Sierra Community Center, 5325 Eagle Road, Carmichael

February 10: West Los Angeles10 AM – Noon in the MultiPurpose Room, Culver City Veterans Memorial  Building, 4117 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA 90230.  Both the grafting demos and scion exchange are free and open to the public, though chapter members get first crack at scion wood. 

February 10: San Joaquin, 10 AM – 2 PM, Salvation Army Garden, 893 Lander Ave, Turlock.

February 11: Golden Gate, Noon – 3 PM, $5 entry, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill

February 11: South Orange County, 10 AM – 2 PM, Irvine Great Park Farm and Food Lab Plant Cuttings / Anything Garden-related Exchange. We will also be having grafting demonstrations in the weeks prior to the event.

February 17: South Bay, 9:45 – 11:30 AM, South Coast Botanical Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA  90274 Free Admission and Open to the public. Chapter members will be given priority for entry and scion selection.

February 17: Central Coast, Cal Poly Crops Unit, San Luis Obispo

February 17: Redwood Empire, Veterans Building, Santa Rosa

February 24: Mendocino Permaculture Winter Abundance Gathering, Anderson Valley Grange

 

Urgent PSA: For all California Fig Growers

The first alarm was sounded on the ourfigs.com forum several years ago.   Now the larvae of the Black Fig Fruit Fly (Silba adipata McAlpine) has been found from Santa Barbara south to at least Orange County.  The photo above is from Santa Monica.   If your unripe figs appear misshapen or prematurely dark or soft, please cut them open and check for larvae.

After a flurry of interest and trapping, the state and county have basically given up on trying to control this pest.  Figs are not a big-money crop in California. So it is left to us amateurs to try and figure out our options.

It is definitely worth joining the forum at ourfigs.com as its members are actively engaged in tracking the infestation and hunting down solutions.  The fly has been endemic in other parts of the world so there is some research available.