If you like a little challenge in growing backyard fruits, the
“Exotic and Common Fruits for Home and Garden” may be what you’re
looking for. The unusual program, which includes the Southern
Fruit Fellowship annual meeting, will be in Tallahassee, Fla.,
June 21-23.

The program starts on an informal note June 21 at the Quality Inn
at 2020 Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee. Registration, from 6 to
8 p.m., clears the way for a musical jam session from 8 to 10
p.m.

The Friday morning session will start at 8:30 a.m. with a look at
mulberries, cherries and persimmons and at fruit cultivars for
south Georgia and north Florida. It will end with a session on
mangos and other tropical fruits.

Tour Just Fruits Nursery

At 11:30 a.m., the group will head for Just Fruits Nursery in
Crawfordville, Fla. They’ll stop for a box lunch along the
way.

In Crawfordville, participants will tour feijoa and other
plantings at the nursery. The afternoon will end with a visit to
Wakulla Spring, one of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater
springs.

The Saturday morning program will start early with a 6:30 buffet.
After-breakfast sessions will look at fruit production in
southern China and berry production in Chile. At 9 a.m., the
group will tour the Florida A&M Viticulture Center east of
Tallahassee.

Tour Attapulgus Peaches,
Mayhaws

The afternoon sessions offer a tour of the University of
Georgia, U.S. Department of Agriculture and University of
Florida Moderate Chilling Peach and Nectarine Breeding Program
and the UGA Mayhaw Orchard at Attapulgus, Ga. The program will
end at 3 p.m.

The registration fee is only $20. It’s free for those who want to
attend only the Attapulgus tour. Rooms at the Tallahassee Quality
Inn can be reserved for $57 plus tax (call 850-877-4437).

To learn more about the program, contact UGA Extension Service
horticulturist Gerard Krewer at (229) 386-3410 (or e-mail gkrewer@uga.edu).