Agriculture students at Nipomo High School were treated to a magic show Friday when Joe Sabol and the volunteers from the California Rare Fruit Growers Association visited their campus.

“Grafting is magic,” Sabol told the mesmerized agriculture science students.

The former associate dean of agriculture at Cal Poly and his CRFGA volunteers demonstrated the magic of grafting fruit trees, a sweet science that brings their groups together.

The association specializes in rare fruit trees. Ambrosia, Splendor, Hawaii, Rome Beauty, Cinnamon Spice and Mott Pink may sound like names of rock-and-roll bands, but they actually are apple varieties. The volunteers enjoy passing on their love of horticulture to students almost as much as they enjoy a sweet, crisp apple.

“It’s a cooperative effort between the Rare Fruit Growers and Cal Poly,” said Art DeKleine, program chair with CRFGA.

The association provides each of the students with their own root stock and a Fuji apple scion — a small branch with buds — to graft to it.

“Did you know Toyota named a car after this?” Sabol asked, holding up the small scion twig with three small apple buds attached.

“Grafting apple trees is one of the easiest to propagate and we like success here, don’t we?” Sabol said in an enthusiastic, rapid-fire delivery.

The show was an educational, enlightening and entertaining mixture of agricultural science and stand-up comedy.

Sabol and his entourage demonstrated to the students how they can take dormant root stock and a twig and magically create an apple tree.

He told the students that if they take good care of their trees, in October 2011 they’ll be able to eat the most delicious Fuji apple they’ve ever tasted.

Why will it be so flavorful?

“Because you’ve grown it all by yourself,” he told them.

The day-long series of demonstrations not only helped the school celebrate Future Farmers of America (FFA) Week, it marked the 800th tree to be grafted at the school in the eight years the association has visited.

It’s a show the CRFGA has been performing at schools all over the Central Coast since 1998, and, a lot like Sabol’s jokes, it never gets old.

“He’s always been like that, even when he was teaching at Cal Poly,” Nipomo High School agriculture teacher Shannon McNeil said of her former instructor.

“Dr. Joe” coordinates the association’s high school outreach program. Each year, the group visits up to 30 schools, performing and educating.

The group also practices what it preaches. Sabol said he has a single tree in his yard at home with more than 100 varieties of apples grafted to it.

“We have, like, three different apples on one tree at home,” said freshman Josh Machado, who first learned grafting from his father and uncle. “It’s kind of cool.”

The CRFGA buys apple tree root stock from a farm in Montana and then pitches in its own Fuji scion for the program.

Freshman Monique Stokes enjoyed the demonstration and was happy to get another tree for her yard.

“It’s pretty cool. I have one in my yard already. It’s a Fuji,” she said.

The CRFGA claims to be the largest amateur fruit-growing organization in the world with members in 48 states and U.S. territories and 30 countries.

By planting seeds of knowledge in area high school students, the organization should continue to grow.