Audience applauding after a talk at a chapter meeting

Past Events

September Chapter Meeting: History of Dragon Fruit

Paul Erickson came to discuss the history of dragon fruit. While some were thinking we might get a how-to about growing dragon fruit with greater success, the bulk of the meeting was talking about individuals in the area who have contributed to the success of dragon fruit and other rare fruit propagation in the southern California region.

We did get a tip about growing the dragon fruit itself (don’t use compost or peat moss, only silica-based potting soil) and a suggestion that full sun might ripen the fruit too fast to let the sugars fully develop – he found that the sweetest fruit had actually been grown in the shade.

There was a great deal of discussion about Paul Thomson, CRFG co-founder, who did some extraordinary work cataloguing and breeding dragon fruit. To be honest, my take-away was that local rare fruit growers can make a real, tangible difference to the future of fruit, and that includes each of us.

Orchard Tour: UC Agriculture and Resources Carlsbad Demonstration Site

On September 6th, our chapter toured the demonstration site of the UCCE San Diego urban agriculture project at the flower fields in Carlsbad. They aim to test how people can feasibly and profitably grow certain high-value crops in small-scale urban settings, like backyards or vacant lots.

We were guided by Eric Middleton, the project lead, staffer Heidi Holmquist, and intern Lily. They explained that they decided to focus on blueberries, ginger and turmeric for their research because those are crops that can do well in Southern California and do not have a lot of preexisting research.

In designing their project, they wanted to use only materials that are readily accessible to small scale growers. Most can be found at Home Depot or similar stores. They grow everything in containers because often in urban settings growers are not guaranteed continued access to land, so they may need to be able to relocate the plants. In addition, container growing allows growers to avoid contamination sometimes found in urban soils. It also reduces pressure from certain pests.

More information about the project and its results can be found on their website.

Speaker gestures to a powerpoint presentation being projected on the wall

Orchard Tour: Fortule Farms

On September 20th, our chapter toured Ken Tseng’s Fortule Farms in Escondido. Ken and his wife bought the 70-acre property four years ago with no prior farming experience. He started growing fruits in pots while living in an apartment in the UTC area. He got scions from CRFG members and grew them. They soon ran out of space, so they bought a house in the Miramar area, but within a year they had outgrown that and started looking for something bigger, which led them to their current home.

The property is divided among what he calls the “backyard” orchard where he grows whatever catches his fancy, and the commercially viable part which consists mainly of 5000 dragon fruit plants. He spends about 70% of his working hours farming, and also maintains his entrepreneurial work outside the farm.

They didn’t have much of a business plan, but have learned along the way and successfully sold all of this year’s bumper crop of dragon fruit – about 7,000 pounds per week during the season. The dragon fruit plants were started from cuttings in his greenhouse, and then planted out on a trellis system of his creation. He has experimented with different materials, including recycled outdoor metal racks from Home Depot for posts, as well as concrete posts.

Ken also grows numerous other fruits, and some vegetables for his family. He likes to collect seeds from fruits that he enjoys eating and has had about a 90% success rate growing good fruit trees from those seeds. This includes an extensive grove of mangoes. There were a variety of cherimoya types, including the pretty pink cherilata, which is a cross between cherimoya and custard apple, guavas, rose apples, sugar cane, jujube, wax jambu, money tree (which grows edible nuts!) and more.

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