Two years ago I was introduced to beekeeping and soon became obsessed with the subject.  I am currently president of the Beekeepers Association of Southern California and a member of the state and national beekeeping associations. I opened Allen Bee Company, Inc., for honey production, commercial pollination, and swarm removal from residential areas.
I had been working in computer networking for years, yet my lifelong love has been horticulture. Last year I was voted vice president of the Los Robles Horticulture Club on the Cal Poly Pomona campus. I currently work with two other students to run all campus hydroponic research and production. We are one of the few universities in the United States with such a hydroponics facility. With Professor Partida I have helped with the implementation of a large deciduous fruit orchard, the management of citrus orchards and techniques in propagation. When I graduate I plan to work in both orchard production and commercial pollination.
I transferred from Golden West College in Huntington Beach to Cal Poly University Pomona two years ago. I am now a senior at Cal Poly and will be one of the last students to graduate with an official horticulture degree next spring. I am married, five years now, to my wife, Katie, and we live in Long Beach, CA. After my wife finished her BA in literature and gained her teaching credentials, it was my turn to go back to college and finish my degree.

My education was in chemistry and botany, and I spent 30 years in the electronics industry.  I have worked in vegetable and tree crops, ranging from bell peppers to pole beans, melons, citrus, avocados and walnuts.  The farm in Valley Center was started while working in the electronics industry.  I have been farming 35 years in San Diego County with a focus on persimmons.  I also planted a large representation of various fruit crops, including apples, apricots, citrus, figs, jujubes, peaches and pomegranates.
 

Gary Bender has been the Subtropical Horticulture Farm Advisor for UC Cooperative Extension in San Diego County for more than 21 years.  Gary received his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from UC Riverside in 1985 having worked on the cause for dry root rot of citrus. 
Gary conducts a research and education program for approximately 3000 avocado growers and 1000 growers of other types of tree crops in the county.  His current projects include:

        Avocado Pruning Trials
        Avocado Bloom Spray Trials to increase fruit set
        Cherimoya girdling to improve fruit set without hand pollination
        Blueberry variety, irrigation and spacing trials
        Pitahaya collection at South Coast Field Station
        Avocado Root Rot rootstock trials

On a personal side, Gary's wife Patty is the 4H goat leader for Fallbrook and she has her goat herd, Gary's oldest son Tad is in his third year of vet med school at UC Davis and is training to be a horse veterinarian, his middle son Andy just graduated in mechanical engineering from San Diego State, and his youngest son Joel works for Homeland Security and is one of the plant and animal inspectors for the shipping terminal and the SeaTac airport in Seattle.

            A nurseryman for 35 years, Tom is a California certified nurseryman and holds four advanced certifications from the California Association of Nursery and Garden Centers.  In addition, he is a Certified Arborist, a Certified Pesticide Applicator and a member of the International Plant Propagators Society.
          Tom is a part-time horticulture instructor in the Landscape and Nursery Department at Southwestern College and works full-time at The Home Depot in Lemon Grove as a sales associate and as the district trainer for the garden department.  Tom also owns and operates his part-time business, Fantasia Gardens, from his home in Lemon Grove, CA.  Fantasia Gardens is a nursery which specializes in fruiting plants.  Services of fruit tree pruning and orchard and landscape consultations are offered.
          Tom's specialty is in fruiting plants for warm winter climates such as Southern California.  Tom has been a member of the California Rare Fruit Growers for 25 years and is a past president of the San Diego chapter.  Tom was the manager of Pacific Tree Farms for more than ten years.

          Tom holds a BA degree in biology as a park ranger naturalist and brings a whole system approach to his view of horticulture.  Tom views plants as a part of their environment, not apart from it.  He believes that the garden is an ecosystem and that the health of our plants and our garden is related to the health of our soil and of everything in our garden.  Tom is an avid proponent of IPM and of permaculture and believes the garden should be a delight to all of our senses; vision, smell and taste. He believes that integrating edibles into the ornamental landscape is the best use of our land and water, and that this integration exploits the full potential of our landscape as well as the unique climate of southern California.  

I am curator of the Avocado Variety Collection at the South Coast Research and Extension Center.   I am also CRFG Avocado Specialist and past chair of the Orange County chapter of CRFG.  I have compiled a list of over 1500 registered or named avocado varieties.  During my presentation I hope I can help people find the avocado variety that is best for their location, space available and growing conditions.
I graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, and was a classroom teacher in Garden Grove and Costa Mesa some years ago.  I also taught classroom music in Huntington Beach and have been a private piano teacher for 37 years.  I grew up on a farm near Pendleton, Oregon, and still am interested and somewhat involved in wheat production there. 

 I'm just a guy messing with apples whose hobby has gotten out of control. I've been seriously involved in this only about two-and-a-half years, but in that time I've written a book, started my own nursery and grafting service, have been teaching classes at the local community college and Oak Glen, and am planting apple trees all over the city. This is only possible because the wonders of the internet have allowed rapid research and enabled me to contact apple people both in Southern California and all over the world.
I've had apple trees in my backyard since I was in my teens and always assumed they grew here.  It wasn't until I started reading up on apples a couple of years ago that I heard they don't do well in warm climates (funny, no one ever told that to my trees).  Our scout troop camps at an apple orchard up by Barton Flats, where we help out, pick apples every fall, and make cider. 
I work for the school district and have planted orchards at several elementary schools.  Through my nursery I've grafted over 1700 trees and sent them out all over the country, mostly to warm climates but also a lot to Oak Glen.  I'm continually amazed at the versatility of this wonderful fruit. 

My work as an entomologist is focused on biological control of ornamental and agricultural pests.  I identify pest problems where biological control could be successful, locate and release natural enemies, and then evaluate natural enemy impact on pest population growth. Evaluations of biological control agents are conducted primarily in the field, and when necessary, aspects of both pest and natural enemy biology and behavior are studied in the laboratory. 
I am particularly interested in determining; 1) the magnitude of reduction in pest population growth caused by natural enemies, 2) the mechanisms by which pests and natural enemies co-exist at low densities, 3) the number of natural enemy species that are needed to give control, 4) inter-specific competition between natural enemies which utilize the same host, and 5) the economics of biological control when compared to pesticides.

Kern loves everything about avocados except their lack of hardiness.  He has spent many days looking for avocado trees that have managed to live in his the Modesto area and produce good fruit.  Probably everyone in the Modesto area knows this avocado explorer and researcher!  He believes if you are going to do something, do it to the "nth" degree and never give up.
Kern has lived in Newman, Ca. for 58 years.  He’s been married to the greatest person on the planet for 35 years and has two perfect children.  He enjoys gardening, golf, fishing, hunting, going to the movies, being with friends, and learning new things.  He’s a past president of the Newman Rotary Club with 31 years of perfect attendance.  He’s worked for Yancey Lumber in Newman for 45 years and purchased the company in 2003. Kern has also served as a volunteer hunter safety instructor for the Ca. Dept. of Fish and Game for the last 16 years, is currently a volunteer golf course rater for the Northern Ca. Golf Association, and is a 21 year member and current president of the Turlock Mosquito Abatement District. 

John is the County Director, University of California Cooperative Extension, Orange County.  He coordinates and supervises the Environmental Horticulture, Watershed, Master Gardener, 4-H, and Expanded Foods and Nutrition Program at the county level.
He is also Environmental Horticulture Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension, South Coast Research & Extension Center, Irvine, California.  His research areas are Insect, Disease and Weed Management in Ornamental Horticulture production systems, Biological control of Exotic pests, water use, water related problems, and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL’s) of landscapes, golf courses, nurseries, municipalities, and at the watershed level.  He is also involved with detection and removal of pathogens, pesticides and nitrates in nursery recycled water systems and in agricultural runoff water.  In addition, he also manages the Master Gardener volunteer program, which uses formally trained volunteers of UC ANR to extend university based information on gardening and horticulture to the public.
John conducts an Extension program of education and research in Environmental Horticulture to improve efficiency and quality of production and marketing of ornamental plants.  He helps alleviate environmental problems of producing and maintaining ornamental plants and agricultural crops in an urban setting and helps the ornamental horticulture and agriculture industry with water and water related problems. 

Ramiro Lobo has been the Small Farm and Agricultural Economics Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Diego County since 1997. His primary responsibility is to conduct research and educational activities to educate and support small scale agricultural producers in San Diego County. As a small Farms and Agricultural Economics Advisor, Ramiro's work focuses primarily on educating small scale producers on topics related to agricultural business and risk management, new crop development and evaluation, new entry grower startup information, market development through agricultural tourism and direct marketing efforts, and farm and pesticide education. Ramiro is one of five farm advisors affiliated with the University of California Small Farm Program. His current research efforts have focused on the evaluation of several cultivars of Pitahaya or dragon fruit (Hylocereus sp.) for adoption and commercial production in California. He has also worked on the development of a New Enterprise Assessment Tool to help small scale producers evaluate new or alternative crops and/or enterprises to diversify their farm operations.

Steven Markell graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Biochemistry. He then undertook almost 3,000 post-graduate hours of training in orthodox and complementary medicine, including Nutrition, Forensic Toxicology, psychology, orthodox western medicine, Chinese and Tibetan medicine, Homeopathy, Herbology, numerous systems of bodywork, naturopathy, the history of medicine, Iridology, and a host of other healing modalities. He has provided nutritional counseling and health education in his clinical practice since 1978. He published the first nationally distributed peer-reviewed quarterly journal in Holistic Health. Steven has also been active in promoting an integrated approach to healing, using the best of all the tools available for restoring health.

Roger is a 25+ year member of CRFG.  He has a degree in chemistry and worked almost 30 years as an analytical chemist, mostly for Allergan Pharmaceuticals.  He and his wife, Shirley, bought 10 acres of land in Valley Center in 1975 to plant kiwifruit and avocado.  After a few years it became apparent that the climate was not suitable for kiwifruit, so they began looking into other, more suitable crops.  They were always interested in introducing unusual fruiting plants that would withstand California climatic conditions.  These they found in jujube and the more unusual kiwifruit relatives.

Tom has a BS in chemistry from Loyola University in Chicago. Beyond a semester of botany way back then, he is largely self-taught about fruiting plants.  Much of his knowledge of horticulture comes from his reading on the subject and practical experience with his own plants.

 Dr. Greg Partida has been teaching at Cal Poly in the Plant Science Department since September, 1975, in the area of Ag Biology and Fruit Industries.  He was the coordinator/farm manager for the Fruit Industries area for 24 years.   He has a B.A. from Cal Poly in Agriculture Biology and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Integrated Pest Management with minor in insect ecology and plant pathology from U.C. Riverside. He was Farm Manager of the 125-acre university orchards at Pomona and Santa Paula.  He has consulted on the culture and pruning of avocados throughout the California production area and in the Dominican Republic since 1992.  Dr. Partida and his students were among the first in California to start pruning and maintaining all major avocado varieties to heights less than 12 feet.  He has held pruning demonstrations throughout the major growing areas of California, which were attended by over 1,000 California growers and handlers.  He has given tours to growers and packers from Chile and the Dominican Republic and to visiting scientists from Australia, Israel, Mexico, Spain and South Africa.  He has worked with some of the largest growers in California and the Dominican Republic. Greg is a big proponent of planting avocados 10 to 15 feet apart and keeping them 8 to 10 feet tall.  He strongly advocates use of humic acid and manures to enhance vitality of avocado trees.

Ben is a long-time CRFG member who has been collecting and propagating uncommon fruiting plants for over 30 years.  Of special interest are plants of the Myrtaceae family, many of which produce excellent fruits and are adaptable to our climate.  Together with wife Mary, Ben operates Ben’s Subtropicals, selling their unique produce and plants at farmers’ markets and plant-related events.  Ben welcomes visitors to his jungle-like plantings by appointment. 

I am a Life Member of the CRFG (WLA and LA chapters as home base), Seed Savers Exchange and Native Seed Search and a member of North American Fruit Explorers, American Horticultural Society, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the Rare Fruit Council International. I have guest lectured on edible horticulture for Santa Monica College, UCLA, CRFG and local public and private schools. My strictly organic garden is in a coastal canyon with about 200 fruit trees and berry bushes and multiple herbs and spices; I grow over 100 varieties of vegetables each year. 

California licensed landscape architect and ISA certified arborist Pieter Severynen has been working with fruit trees for over 40 years. He studied subtropical agriculture in the Netherlands, where he received his pruning diploma from the State Agricultural College in Deventer. He graduated in landscape architecture at the University of California in Berkeley. After a career in land planning with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development he set up his own landscape architect and consulting arborist office in Los Angeles (plseve@earthlink.net). In addition he is the Director of Planning and Design for North East Trees, a nonprofit Los Angeles environmental design-build firm that practices urban forestry, watershed rehabilitation, park design and community stewardship. He teaches classes in and publicly speaks on arboriculture, planning, environmental subjects, gardening, urban forestry, and fruit tree pruning and maintenance.

Edgar retired from the computer industry and has been an active member of CRFG ( Los Angeles Chapter) for the past 10 years. He specializes in growing passion fruits, pitayas, cherimoyas and lucumas. He grows almost 100 other different semi-tropical fruits in a challenging climate with temperatures ranging from 105 in the summer to 27 in the winter. He has been doing a lot of research on new fruits and has had much success.

Jon has been a gardener for 50+ years and a CRFG member for 20 years, specializing in figs (Aked to Zidi) and bananas (Apple to Zan Moreno) for about 10 years.  He grows one of the largest non-institutional collections of figs and bananas in California along with many other fruiting plants.  He is owner of Encanto Farms Nursery. 

Rick Yessayian is a retired science educator of 30+ years.  He worked with JPL as an Education Consultant for more than 15 years on numerous NASA projects.  A noted and accomplished lecturer, Rick has provided the community with benefits from his many areas of expertise: physics, biology, botany, photography, geology, astronomy and space science.  His enthusiasm, photos, lectures and ideas have appeared in local, regional, national and international electronic, video, and print media.  He is an avid traveler and rare-fruit gardener and has been active with the Orange County chapter of California Rare Fruit Growers for many years.  His home in Brea had over 100 varieties of edible fruits.  He is currently living in Running Springs, California, and is planting cool weather/high altitude fruiting plants around his home—a new adventure in rare-fruit growing.