Claude Has Flowered

It's been over eight years since I started growing cacao trees again.  My first attempt in 2014 wasn't so good, probably because I didn't have as much information on exactly what a cacao tree wanted for good growing conditions.

Claude has gone though several pot and dirt changes and additions over they years.  This little flower means he is getting the right light, water, and nutrients he wants to finally flower and one day fruit. I don't expect fruit for some time still.  This is the first flower and he will probably need another flowering cacao tree to produce fruit.  I say probably because the majority of cacao trees do not self pollinate even though they have both male and female portions to their flowers. There are some cacao trees that can pollinate themselves but it is much less common.  Is Claude one of these?  I have no idea.

Fortunately I have another cacao tree, Claudette.  She's like Claude but smaller.  I don't know if they are the same kind of cacao or not since I haven't seen either of them fruit yet.  The leaves of course are so similar that it wouldn't help.  I believe they were from the same purchase of pods but I got 4 different kinds of pods and planted almost all of the seeds.  Even then the cross pollination will give variants even in the same pod so there's that.

Long story short is that the long story of growing my own chocolate is still a long way from being realized.  This is only one of the many steps toward that goal.

If you look closely at the bud it almost looks like a cacao pod in miniature.  If it had been pollinated and this was a pod in progress it would be in this shape and keep getting bigger.  I was told that even when they are the size of a tennis ball they aren't considered fruit yet.  They are still just baby cherelle. It isn't until the fruit is almost full size before you can really expect it to succeed. Before that it could still just fall right off.

The color and shape of the pod are unique to each tree.  No two trees are exactly the same due to the cross pollination of trees to make more seeds and trees.  Trees next to each other may make very different pods but both could be ripe. One might need to turn red while another is ripe at yellow. This is where a farmer really has to know his trees.  The shape of the pods are also specific to the tree.  Anywhere from a little bigger than a softball to bigger than a football.  This is why the fruit grows on the trunk and not the branches as the weight would break off branches.

Harvesting fruit also has to be done by hand since you have to protect the pads where the fruit grows.  If damaged it could stop flowering from that pad for good.  There's another spot I'm watching that may produce flowers too but not sure yet.  There's something going on there at least.