Past Events
July Chapter Meeting - Horticultural Myths
Our July speaker was Dawn Standke of UCANR and Master Gardener. She addressed a list of those "facts" we've all heard about gardening, covering what’s true and what’s a really bad idea.
She spoke about copper nails for killing trees (doesn't work), gravel in pots for drainage (ineffective), DIY salt+vinegar weedkiller (doesn't penetrate to roots and adding garden salt is a bad idea, but vinegar can destroy young weed sprouts). Pocket gophers got a lot of screen time, both for their pockets and rumored control methods.
July Orchard Tour - Fortule Farms
On July 25th, about 60 members and guests of our chapter toured Ken Tseng’s Fortule Farms in Escondido. Ken and his team of three full-time and one part-time workers have been busy in the 10 months since our last visit, adding 2,500 more dragon fruit plants and making other improvements around the farm in addition to the regular farm work. Ken and his wife bought the 70-acre property five years ago, with no prior farming experience.
Ken also grows mango, cherilita, cherimoya, guavas, rose apples, sugar cane, jujube, wax jambu, money tree (which grows edible nuts!) and more.
The dragon fruit plants were started from cuttings in his greenhouse, and then planted out on a trellis system of his creation. The plants are all in pots, with drip irrigation going to each pot. He runs the drip irrigation twice per week for about 2 hours, or 2 gallons. The roots grow out the holes in the bottom of the pots and into the ground. The pots make it easier to plant the dragon fruit cuttings and concentrate the irrigation where it is needed, and also provide some gopher protection. All of the dragon fruit flowers are hand pollinated every morning, usually from around 5:30 to 9:00 a.m. They could be pollinated at night, but no one in his operation wants to do that. He grows multiple varieties, including LaVerne Red, which has large fruit and is sweet, Mex G3, which is self-fertile, very thorny and produces a beautiful dark red fruit that ripens in winter with a crunchy texture, Ax, whose production isn’t as good but has beautiful dark pink flowers, and Sugar Dragon, which is self-fertile (and also good for pollenating other dragon fruit varieties), and is delicious and easy to grow.
If you are starting to grow dragon fruit, Ken recommends trying out several varieties to see which perform best in your location.
