Flower Cluster

This time we have a flower cluster. Typically cacao trees grow more than one flower from a single flower pad. To keep a flower pad in good condition you never pull fruit off of the tree. That will damage a pad and may never grow flowers from that location again if it is damaged too much.

This is still the first tree but if you look closely this is flowers 4,5,6, and 7. Still trying to get the second tree big enough that it will want to flower.

Both trees are currently in the same area and of course indoors. The heat this week is in the mid 100's so definitely not what these trees need to be happy and healthy.

The strawberry plants on the other hand are coming back like it's spring. I had nearly given up on them but kept watering anyway.  Now it looks like, even though they died back quite a bit all the way down to the dirt, they are all coming back with new growth. At first it was just one of the plants with a small green shoot of leaves but now the whole pot is nearly filled in at the ground level. I can only hope that this is going to mean they will overwinter well if I bring them inside.   They are in a pot after all.  The runners we propagated however did not fare so well and have not come back. Much of what we planted out front though is still good. Our basil plants are bushy and getting bigger after I trimmed back the flowers.

The fig tree in the back is also bouncing back nicely.  I had figured the heat would keep it down until September or October once it started cooling down but the heat seems to have kicked it into high gear and it's shooting leaves up all over.

Claude Has Another Flower

This time Claude has a more developed flower. It really opened up and showed us how big they are going to be. This is of course zoomed in a little but it's easily visible and showy. Looking forward to when it has hundreds of these guys blooming at a regular basis.

The trunk is still a little small to be carrying fruit but flowers are always a good sign that the conditions are right for producing.

Some of the other flowers we have around the garden are our daylilies and of course the green onion is a regular feature. One of the green onion blooms was almost 100 percent pollinated and is currently full of seed pods nearly ready to harvest. The bean plants are also regularly blooming and making beans. They are trailing up some of the closer plants to them and spreading fast.

The new job has kept me busy and not a lot of time to focus on keeping up here but I'm still going.  The next thing I'm going to plant are some dragonfruit seeds.  I hear they are relatively easy to sprout and grow.  Don't be fooled by the one that shows the fruit being soaked in water and sprouting though. It's all fake.  That would just rot in the water and destroy the seets.  The plant also doesn't grow like that. It's a sprawling plant that loves good soil and rocks. So hardy.

Sent from my iPhone

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.

Claudette Coming Home

Soon I will be working from home.  I've been with my current company almost ten years but saw an opportunity that I really thought would be an interesting career change and applied, not really thinking they would hire me but if you never ask they can never tell you yes.

I'll be starting at the end of the month and this pretty little lady will need a place to live at the house.  She's not super big still so I hope one of the corners will be suitable enough but the lighting might be an issue.  Claude already has two grow lights and the basil plant near him is doing good so I think there is plenty of light there.  The problem comes with space though.  The basil plant is already sitting on a desk that needs to be clear for working.  There is no way Claudette can live there and be functional. 

She has a base for her pot though so location is a lot easier than Claude which has no base and instead sits on feet and drains to a mat if there is drainage out of the bottom of the pot. The mat is textured to absorb some of the water if it does and the bottom of the mat is rubber so it doesn't leak though to the carpet.  A nice industrial type mat.

I also have another pot in the office (not shown here).  So much to plant so little space in my home office.  That pot might be going out into the greenhouse and have veggies or a small tree.  It's a decent size pot.  What do you think would be good to grow in an approximately 2 gallon pot?