Gorilla Grafter group turning ornamental trees in the city to fruit bearing ones

[ClayMango]

 Yes its breaking the Law, but imagine the good that will come from it. 

Hope this idea spreads across the Nation. Imagine walking through your local park grabbing a Sweet Tart Mango, or grabbing a Flavor King Pluot for those of us up North.... Anyone know these guys CRFG??? 

*EDIT- just realized there are no ornamental Mango trees...unless you're talking about Tommy Atkins Mango Trees.

http://weburbanist.com/2015/10/22/guerrilla-grafting-public-trees-spliced-to-bear-edible-fruit/

[fyliu]

I posted similar comments elsewhere. I think the biggest issue is people suing the city when they slip on fruits, or think they got poisoned. So the city can't condone this and might need to be somehow actively against it to cover their backs legally. That's in the case where the city is progressive enough to see it in a positive light. I guess the city can pretend to be ignorant of this if it doesn't make it to major news outlets and look the other way until the first lawsuit happens. What's the best thing for the citizens to do here?

Heck, even homeowners can be sued by strangers stealing and eating their fruit and get sick. I'm not sure if those stories were true but seems they needed to put up a do not pick sign to make it clear the fruit is not public.

[barath]

I've met Tara a couple of times and traded plants -- she's part of our local CRFG and knows her stuff.  I really like their effort and hope it spreads.

I've been working on a local ballot measure (proposition) that will change the rules so that the city parks department is required to plant at a minimum 1/3 fruit trees and at most 2/3 ornamental trees, and also make it so fruit trees are allowed on the sidewalk strip.  While there's always a chance of someone who's lawsuit-happy, I think it's not that big of a risk.  One way to deal with it is that if residents plant fruit trees in the sidewalk strip, they are responsible for keeping the sidewalk clear, which is already the case in many cities.

[fyliu]

It's good to hear you're trying to change the rules and that your city is going along with it.

The logo for my city (Covina) is an orange and we have a "historical" park that's paved in concrete. They have "farmers market" events there Fridays but I don't go. I heard there's no fresh produce. The upside is there's no sidewalk in front of my (parents') house, so it's all growing space.

[fruitlovers]

I've met Tara a couple of times and traded plants -- she's part of our local CRFG and knows her stuff.  I really like their effort and hope it spreads.

I've been working on a local ballot measure (proposition) that will change the rules so that the city parks department is required to plant at a minimum 1/3 fruit trees and at most 2/3 ornamental trees, and also make it so fruit trees are allowed on the sidewalk strip.  While there's always a chance of someone who's lawsuit-happy, I think it's not that big of a risk.  One way to deal with it is that if residents plant fruit trees in the sidewalk strip, they are responsible for keeping the sidewalk clear, which is already the case in many cities.

I think there is a very strong anti fruit, anti edible plant under current from the people that run things in the USA. Most of it is unjustified. And i hazard to guess that most of these negative feelings really spring from a negative association between growing food and poverty. Perhaps this started just after WWII. During WWII people were encouraged to plant so called victory gardens, mostly out of necessity. During affluent times almost everyone rather plant flowers or palms to show they have good taste and no need to grow their own food, ie that they are affluent enough to be able to just go out and buy their food. Ofcourse there are some wealthy people that have food gardens, but i think this is a very small minority.
It's rather difficult to break this negative association, but i think it could be done. Probably changing the laws in the long run would be much more effective than guerilla grafting. But it's good to attack this misplaced association and negative perception from different angles. So why not also guerrila grafting? There is also guerilla gardening, where people plant food plants in public spaces.

[barath]

I think there is a very strong anti fruit, anti edible plant under current from the people that run things in the USA. Most of it is unjustified. And i hazard to guess that most of these negative feelings really spring from a negative association between growing food and poverty. Perhaps this started just after WWII. During WWII people were encouraged to plant so called victory gardens, mostly out of necessity. During affluent times almost everyone rather plant flowers or palms to show they have good taste and no need to grow their own food, ie that they are affluent enough to be able to just go out and buy their food. Ofcourse there are some wealthy people that have food gardens, but i think this is a very small minority.
It's rather difficult to break this negative association, but i think it could be done. Probably changing the laws in the long run would be much more effective than guerilla grafting. But it's good to attack this misplaced association and negative perception from different angles. So why not also guerrila grafting? There is also guerilla gardening, where people plant food plants in public spaces.

I've been wondering if one way to help break peoples' mindsets about it is to make rare fruits into "luxury" items in peoples' minds, but at the same time help them realize that such fruits are something that money can't buy.  For example, I have yet to find a tasty passionfruit for sale anywhere in Northern California (when available, they're sour fruit from New Zealand), but plenty of CRFG folks grow passionfruit and we can introduce folks to the fact that if they want something tasty like passionfruit they're going to have to grow it themselves.  Same for pineapple guavas, white sapote, good avocados, etc.

Yup, doing some guerrilla gardening too, though often I eventually get tacit approval of the plantings.  Here are some bananas I planted in front of a 7-11 last year that have now fruited (also planted Guavas, Avocado, and Citrus) in a spot with no irrigation (I had to carry buckets to water it -- that's often the problem with guerrilla gardening here).

[greenman62]

We are voting today for the Dept of Ag for Louisiana
there is a green party candidate running, i dont know how he is doing in the polls
but, he has my vote
i talked to him about putting fruit trees in state parks, certain roads etc...
also, about the laws on growing food on the front lawn
He was pretty open to the ideas.

i am growing a lot of food in my yard
i dont know if its illegal or not
but, ive heard Louisiana has strict laws against it.

support Food Not Lawns.
http://www.foodnotlawns.com/

This is "ACE" ... LOL...

[catteau]

Yes its breaking the Law, but imagine the good that will come from it. 

Hope this idea spreads across the Nation. Imagine walking through your local park grabbing a Sweet Tart Mango, or grabbing a Flavor King Pluot for those of us up North.... Anyone know these guys CRFG??? 

*EDIT- just realized there are no ornamental Mango trees...unless you're talking about Tommy Atkins Mango Trees.

http://weburbanist.com/2015/10/22/guerrilla-grafting-public-trees-spliced-to-bear-edible-fruit/

This is totally awesome! 

What's CRFG?

[fruitlovers]

Yes its breaking the Law, but imagine the good that will come from it. 

Hope this idea spreads across the Nation. Imagine walking through your local park grabbing a Sweet Tart Mango, or grabbing a Flavor King Pluot for those of us up North.... Anyone know these guys CRFG??? 

*EDIT- just realized there are no ornamental Mango trees...unless you're talking about Tommy Atkins Mango Trees.

http://weburbanist.com/2015/10/22/guerrilla-grafting-public-trees-spliced-to-bear-edible-fruit/

This is totally awesome! 

What's CRFG?

California Rare Fruit Growers. They put out a bi monthly magazine called Fruit Gardener. Their website is http://www.crfg.org

[ClayMango]

Um  guys I never said it was CRFG... Just  a curious question... I really don't want anyone to get in any trouble here.

[Triloba Tracker]

I love this Guerilla gardening/grafting idea. I've had similar inclinations but now I have a snazzy term for it. I have a lot of daydreams of planting pawpaws and maypops in public areas. We have them wild, of course, but I'm thinking about more public areas
I have thought about asking the city to plant pawpaws in a couple parks but I keep imagining them objecting to having to mow around them
In a similar vein I have done some Guerilla pawpaw pollinating and plan to do even more next spring. My holy grail is a large specimen in a very busy Nashville park that I have never seen fruit on.

[barath]

Um  guys I never said it was CRFG... Just  a curious question... I really don't want anyone to get in any trouble here.

Yeah, I should have been more clear -- Tara's part of CRFG but the grafting project isn't a CRFG project.

[simon_grow]

I daydream about filling public places with fruit trees but I can see the point about them making a mess, attracting rats and people getting sick. What I have started doing is to plant my favorite trees at my family, friends and neighbors yards. This way I get the fulfillment of being surrounded by my favorite fruit without having to cram everything into my small yard.

Simon

[Triloba Tracker]

I daydream about filling public places with fruit trees but I can see the point about them making a mess, attracting rats and people getting sick. What I have started doing is to plant my favorite trees at my family, friends and neighbors yards. This way I get the fulfillment of being surrounded by my favorite fruit without having to cram everything into my small yard.

Simon

I see the downsides too. And like you I also had the idea of sharing tres with friends and family - I don't have hardly any suitable spots for fruit trees so I plan to give some away someday.

[fruitlovers]

I daydream about filling public places with fruit trees but I can see the point about them making a mess, attracting rats and people getting sick. What I have started doing is to plant my favorite trees at my family, friends and neighbors yards. This way I get the fulfillment of being surrounded by my favorite fruit without having to cram everything into my small yard.

Simon

I see the downsides too. And like you I also had the idea of sharing tres with friends and family - I don't have hardly any suitable spots for fruit trees so I plan to give some away someday.

I see the downside of everyone having quality fruits to eat, there being no more malnutrition on the planet, or no more people dying of starvation. I'm sure someone could argue that if that occured the population explosion would be a lot worse than it already is. Yes you can find a downside to almost anything. But that shouldn't stop you from doing it when the balance is much higher on the positive side.