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? 

Claudette Really Filling Out

Claudette is filling out nicely.  Soon she will be back to her old self and who knows how long it will be until she flowers.  Will possibly be able to take her home at that point or maybe just move pollen from one tree to the next.  Will just have to see how everything goes.

With the greenhouse in the yard now some of the more summery plants are now starting to pop back up.  I think it's turmeric breaking ground again in several places. Not the one up front though.  Although the day lily is still going strong.  Will see how cold it has to get before it kills it back for the year.  I remember even in Southeast Texas they would die back and come up in the spring.

Several other seeds have been planted in the green house to see what might sprout.  I know they say you can start seeds in a green house but I've never been able to find out.  At the house in Arlington the "green house" was more like a drafty covered porch.

I've got the study pretty well cleaned up and Claude is loving the new light setup.  I have the grow lights mounted to the wall finally and they are set up on an intermittent timer. Day is on 1.5 hours and off 0.5 hours.  Night is the opposite.  It keeps the leaves from burning quite so much it seems.

Full Moons of the 2026 Seasons

 

Super proud of this one.  I've been playing around with ai photo generation and with a bit of help and formatting research came up with this one for the moons of 2026 by season.

There is no blue moon this coming year but also no December moon for the seasons either.  That will be tacked on to next year's list as the first full moon of winter.  The next blue moon is May 20 of 2027.

So once in a blue moon has a chance again that month.