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.

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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.

Claudette2 Hanging In There

So far she hasn't died yet.  There is still some limberness and some of the tips are still green.  I trimmed back all of the leaves since they were dry and brittle anyway.  The leaf stems fell off but so far the branches haven't followed suit.  

There is a little thinness to some of the branches and they might not all survive the ordeal but I'm still hopeful that she'll pull through.  All I can do now is water and wait and see.  I have to keep the ground from drying out and killing the root.

Clautedde1 however is still doing pretty good.  There are a couple leaves that have turned but that always happens anyway and isn't necessarily a sign that there is a problem.  What I'm watching now is the new leaf growth.  There are a couple new leaves popping in and I just want to make sure they continue growing.  If that happens then we're all good.

I did plant some tomato plants in that pot and they've already sprouted.  I expect them to die though and add nutrients to the soil.  Also the English ivy I put in is still green after a couple weeks.  Waiting to see how this affects things if at all.  Usually there is a little root but English ivy tends to sprawl and cling to things, possibly the outside of the pot.  If on the off chance Claudette2 doesn't make it, I have some other tree seeds waiting in the wings to swoop in for the pot.

Claudette2 Stressed

So at the office I have had 2 smaller cacao trees growing in the same pot.  It was about time for them to be in their own pots but this really puts stress on them.  The larger one is doing fine but this smaller one that was continually living in the shadow of the other is struggling.  There are a couple new leaves pushing out but for the most part i think it will loose ALL of its other leaves.

I trimmed some of them back in an effort to reduce what it was trying to keep going but I think it may have been too little too late for them.  This is after a week of repotting and is better than losing all of the leaves on day 1 or 2.  It has always struggled though to even put out the smallest of leaves in the other pot, the leaves being 1/4 the size of the other tree.

The soil is still moist but not wet and draining out.  Added a little today to make sure there was enough moisture but it's hard to tell exactly what is needed at this point.  I guess I'll just have to be patient and see how things go.  Probably stop by here tomorrow as well to see how many leaves are left and assess the progress and state of the little tree.  There is still plenty of hope though.  I've heard of cacao trees that have come back even after a year of losing all of their leaves.  They really are resilient trees.

Cluster of Figs

Figs like so many other fruits grow in stages.  Here you have a fig just about ready to eat next to four others in different stages of development.

At this point if you want the fig to continue to develop on the tree but speed up a little, you can nick it with a knife or other pointy object and it will ripen a lot faster. Typically you wouldn't want to do this with a lot of fruit, like apples, because they would not just ripen but also start to rot.

I went ahead and picked this one though so as not to attract too many birds to the tree.  I know they will eventually see this as a good source of food but I wanted to get first crack at it.  Some birds will nick the fruit themselves once they get used to the fig tree fruiting.  They know that this will ripen the fruit and give them a treat for their troubles.

Talking with Amber we thought of some other fruits that have to be picked individually because they don't ripen at the same times.  To name a few: Figs, Coffee, Cacao, Strawberries, Cherries, Apples, Oranges, Pears, and Grapes.  These last few might be a little surprising but they too ripen at different times.  Some of them are picked by machines though but this lets in less ripe fruit along with the ones that are ready to pick so you don't always get the best quality fruit in that case.

What is your favorite fruit to eat?

Claude in His New Home

Claude seems to be getting along quite nicely in his new location.  He still has a window we can open on nice days and we bought him a new Feit Grow Light.  This one has more settings.  We got it at Home Depot in the commercial lighting area.  They guy there didn't know they even had them over there.  He tried to get me to get grow fluorescent or screw in bulbs...

The light we got has different switches for different light on the strips. There's white, red, and violet. Violet seems to be for general growth where red is for flowering.  I probably want to use red soon to see if I can get Claude to make flowers.

We also got these nice brick feet for the pot instead of the trash can rollers.  They were much more expensive than regular bricks but the pot is heavy so I don't really mind.  The trash can base really couldn't take the weight of the pot and had started bowing in.  Not the best thing to use.  Looked on Amazon for something similar but they didn't have any basic ones.  I don't recommend plastic, cork, or rubber since these will deteriorate over time if  you don't move your pots.  I did find these feet though.  Amazon has them in different colors too but I'd suggest red.  It just feels more like the pots.

English Ivy

So many plants can be grown in an office. This English ivy is one such plant that can thrive in an office environment.  Of course they can also thrive on the side of a brick building so it really isn't surprising.

We have so many office plants where I work but unless you're looking for them you might not notice them.  This little guy showed up and had to be pointed out.  From the side it almost looks like he's growing through this wire sculpture it's sitting next to. which isn't the worst of ideas.

Then there is a money "tree".  I quote mark that because I don't think they're really trees.  At least I've never seen one being a tree or even a bush.  They have always been these spindly little things all wound up in a knot.  It sits near the break room but currently only has two leaves on it.  I hear it's being nursed back to health but I don't think it will make it.  Just my own observation with these things.  They aren't the best office plant.

I've mentioned many office plants before,  The ficus is a nice choice.  Although it looses leaves pretty regularly it can take a wide range of growing conditions.  If I had more space I'd probably get one.  Speaking of ficus trees though, that is also the group fig trees are in.  Maybe I can talk my wife into letting me have another fig tree.  It was the one tree that really seemed to do well and produce food.  Just have to keep the birds off of it and keep it trimmed well enough to keep a good lawn to boot.

Of course I couldn't forget to mention Claudette and her twin, the office cacao trees that are still growing in the same little pot.  One of these days I'll get around to splitting those two up.  The little one is hanging on but I know she'd do so much better alone in a pot.

Fermenting Cacao Day 12

Ok only two days since last I checked them but they seem ready.  Rinsed the cacao off from the pulp and sorted out the beans.  It took a few times rinsing them off to get the  water to be mostly clear.

There were a few that were not really developed.  They were mostly just empty shell.  A couple were spotty but cleaned up nicely so I'm not worried about it affecting the finished product.  Tossed the empty ones of course and used a paper towel to clean off those that needed it.

Now I'm going to pat them with paper towels and spread them out.  I'm not going to completely dry them this way but just enough to get the majority of goo off.  Then placing them on a cooling rack I use for cookies and such.  Thoroughly cleaned of course to make sure none of the odors transfer into the beans.  As mentioned before they will soak up odor and flavors like sponges.  This also means no heavy cooking since the spices will get into the air.

Fermenting Cacao Day 10

Ten days in and the mass is getting more homogenous. The bubbles are getting smaller as they have more room to spread out.  Previously the mass was chunky and not entirely broken down yet.  Now there is more of a sauce consistency that the beans are fermenting in.

I took one of the beans out to check on the color.  They're supposed to get a purplish tint to them as the beans chemically change.  The middle was about there but nearer the edge it still wasn't quite the color I wanted.

The aroma still hits you when you enter the room but it's starting to change slightly.  I want to get it before it gets what some people call the "pork" scent.  While cacao and meat do go well together, you don't want your chocolate bar tasting faintly like a hotdog.

I will probably be fermenting for another four to five days, checking regularly on it and making sure it's still going.  After that I'll be drying it, possibly outside some if I'm going to be home, otherwise I guess I'll have to do it on the counter.  The cooling racks should be good for that with the fan going so they don't start to mold.  Then off to the air fryer with the drum attachment.  The whole reason for getting that particular model was so I could roast cacao beans.  Have to make sure it's spotless though since we also cook other foods in there.  Cacao will soak up any odors from foods you have near it.  Onion chocolate anyone?  Didn't think so.

Fermenting Cacao

Went to the Dallas Chocolate Festival and got two pods and they already seemed to have started the process (still tasted good though).  So I decided to process them to see if I could get some chocolate out of them.

This is day one of the fermentation.  I'll need to add heat to it since it's not enough mass to maintain temperature while it processes.

Last time I did this it took almost two weeks but in the end it was just about right.  This time I'm documenting it better so that I can have a better idea of what happens and where I need to make adjustments.

Also this time I added a little sugar to the mix for the fermenting to have a little more to eat as it begins the process.

Claude’s New Lower Branches

For healthy growth a cacao tree needs to have many branches from the main trunk.  This is the lowest branch Claude has put out so far.  I don't want to mess with it too much although it would be nice if it grew out straighter than this.  I'll take it though.

There are several other locations where there may be new growth.  We've been monitoring this one for months now and it's finally taking off so there's hope for the others as well.

In citrus trees this would probably be viewed as a sucker but I don't think that's the case here.  A couple up top may be though.

As you can see in this photo, the trunk is really starting to look like a trunk with the rougher bark and brown color.  Points along the trunk and main branches will be where later flowers will be able to form and hopefully make cacao pods.  Can;t wait!

Claude Continues to Grow

Claude continues to grow.

Shortly after repotting I decided to take him outside for some sun.  The sun wasn't so bad but the wind kicked up and took out a lot of leaves.  he just wasn't prepared for it.

He's since bounced back nicely with all of these leaves being new.  He's also sprouted a new branch down low which is what I'd been hoping for for some time now. He needs some good branching so that he can produce fruit eventually.  I spoke with a chocolate grower who told me to make sure he's got good branching and eventually I'll need to cut the top off to encourage more outward growth.  That's going to be a stressful event.

Reporting Claude (the cacao tree)

Finally got Claude in a clay pot.  I've noticed for some time now that all of the cacao trees in clay pots do significantly better than those in plastic.  I also got a plastic trash can dolly to go under it so I can move it around a bit more.

I had been a little scared to water him too much since he was sitting on the floor and I wasn't able to tell if there was too much water until it started to spill out from the bottom and I really don't want to mess up the floor.  Now though I can simply roll it to the side and check.  Of course I drilled holes in the base of the dolly so it wouldn't hold water in it.  There is a divot in the middle of it.

After this I added water and no drips!  So I added more water and still no drips. And added water. And added water. And so on.  I think he was well under watered which would explain the slow growth compared to earlier.

I now have high hopes for him to start taking off again and look forward to many more leaves and hopefully height.  There were decent roots in the soil when I transplanted him so I don't think there will be a problem.  I've even already seen a new little leaf trying to form.  I'll check every day for a while to make sure he's happy in his new pot.

Ground Chocolate

This is coarse ground chocolate I have produces from the cacao pod I fermented and roasted.  This is not however all of the cacao nibs I made, only about a third of it.

This is much closer to how chocolate was originally used, pounded to a mass and added to whatever, usually a drink.  This however has sugar added and can be called about 70% dark chocolate.

It really does have a good flavor to it even if it is an extremely micro batch.  One of the things that contribute to flavor is the yeasts in the area it is fermented.  This is why I wanted to see how Texas chocolate would turn out before investing too much time or money in producing it in a larger scale.

Of course I will still have Claude no matter how things turn out.  He's got more leaves coming in again.  Yes, I said leaves as in plural.  There is a top leaf (height) coming in but there are also two side leaves coming in.  One of them has a very definite leaf shape and was the first to pop out.  They are at consecutive leaf points and about two thirds the way up the trunk.  Just saying trunk gives me chills.  He's an actual tree now with a thin bark.  So many of the other trees have not made it.  There are however several still at the office that are sprouting new leaves.  If all goes well they will be the other trees in the cacao orchard.

Back to the ground chocolate though.  I'm not sure I have enough to try to temper it.  We did kind of temper some ground chocolate once.  It had a snap but there was also more if it than this.  I'm afraid of scorching such a small amount.  Probably just eat it like this.  Maybe even as an ice cream topping.

Roasting Cacao

We began with the pod and decided to go all the way from pod to chocolate.  Fermenting was interesting since the mass couldn't hold the heat in for very long and often times I would end up holding the plastic bag they were fermenting in to give the yeast enough warmth to grow.  It took twice as long as it should usually take to ferment the beans but they ended up with a wonderful aroma.

Then we dried the beans and kept them sealed up so as not to absorb odors from anything in the kitchen we might be cooking or storing nearby.  For a little bit they were tossed in the freezer but this doesn't seem to have affected the final roast any.

While trying to figure out what to do at this point we weighed our options and the costs of those options.  We didn't want to try the oven again since it didn't work out so well the other times we tried it.  After some time we found that Pampered Chef had this air fryer that came with a rotating basket.  It looked almost exactly like some of the coffee roasters that were recommended to use to roast cacao beans.  Although not always in stock it was one of the items you could get half off if you threw a party and got enough sales.  So, for under $150 we got this and followed the recommendations in the Making Chocolate book by Dandelion Chocolate.  Looking back it could possibly have used another minute in the roaster but the fragrance is awesome.  As far as I know it's the only Texas fermented chocolate in existence as craft chocolate makers purchase beans that have already been fermented and dried.  Now all I have to do is get Claude (the cacao tree growing in my office) to produce pods and sugar from southeast Texas and I will then be able to produce a 100% Texas chocolate bar.

Sprout Survivor

As hoped this guy is springing back!  One of the leaves is still shriveled up and drying out but the other one has new life in it and the new little leaf in the middle is getting bigger.  And of course it's standing up as well instead of just lying on the dirt....

Several of the other plants are also now springing up out of the ground.  Nothing too showy yet but hopefully soon it will be worth its own post.

Working on a few other things seeing what I can come up with on taking care of the inside plants.  So far some of the small trees have died.  I think the shock got to them.  Claude (the big cacao tree) has a new leaf coming in though and seems to have finally acclimated to his new home.  Just keep 'em fed and watered and remember to open the blinds during the day I guess.

Also still dealing with fungus gnats.  Can you have humid loving plants without them?  Any tips would be great.

Branching Cacao Trees

As promised this is a post about all the different ways I have seen and photographed cacao trees branching out.  Of course you have the typical sprout at the connection point of a leaf.  This is the usual way trees branch.  It's a weak point in the structure of the plant and thus an obvious point where trees push out new growth.  It not only keeps the structure going but strengthens the plant in that area.

Similarly I've noticed crepe myrtles doing the same thing. Also if you prevent new growth by brushing off the new green, the plant usually still strengthens the area by making a callous hardness to the stem or branch.  In some trees you can encourage growth by removing lower leaves as the plant grows.  I did this with a fig tree and got the branches to not only get taller but thicker and stronger in a single season of growth.

Also the new growth replaces previous stem areas as in this picture.  This is a case where the top of the tree died back and new growth continued from right next to the area where it used to be.  Now it has produced sucker shoots at the same location, again these start at areas of weak points on a plant but in this case they can actually weaken a tree by taking nutrients to grow stems that usually aren't as strong.

These can still be productive but it's probably a good idea to remove them so the better limbs can be as good as possible.  Do this before they start getting woody for ease of removal and to minimize any potential damage that can be done to the tree.  Cacao trees can easily be damaged especially when harvesting the fruits which is why the fruit is usually harvested with machetes.  This keeps the fruiting pads healthy and productive for the life of the tree. 

This has to be one of the most unusual branching occurrences I've ever seen.  The new growth has started out of an extension of the leaf base which pushed the leaf further from the trunk and made this bendy branch leaf thing.  Again you can see it started at a weak point in the tree where a branch has already occurred.  

Claude the Cacao Tree, Repotted

So we finally repotted Claude the Cacao Tree.

So far so good.  It's been a few days and no sign of stress.  The root ball came out pretty much in tact though so I don't really expect any problems.  He's now got a lot more room to grow though and will probably live in this new pot for a long time.

As  you can see in the picture, he's got a new sprout forming at the bottom.  If he's truly happy he will turn that into a branch and begin the branching process.

I was told recently that for a truly productive cacao tree you needed it to branch first.  So here we go.

Speaking of branching though, there are lots of ways these guys branch.  I took some photos of my office cacao trees and they many ways they have started branching.  They aren't nearly so big but the branching is much more there.

I will include these pics in a future post noting how many different ways a tree can start branching out.  One of them is truly unusual and nothing I'd have though would be possible.  So, come back and see the branching post shortly.

Claude is Sprouting Again

A couple days ago there was just the one new leaf sprouting.  Now we've got three going at one time.  A couple of the other cacao plants are also having new leaves.  I'm going to blame it on having a nice window to grow next to.  Every day we open the blinds and they get a bit of sun and nice light throughout the day.

Now all I have to do is make the area also productive for the vanilla to start growing better and make some beans.  They're already long enough to start flowering but haven't had the right conditions to do so.

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Minimal Cacao Cold Damage

You've probably heard that cacao can't really survive cold very well. While that's probably true to some extent, the numbers I keep seeing seem to be more of an overall guideline for yearly temperatures.  The range typically says 50-90 degrees.  Lower than 50 is said to damage the trees while above 90 is said to prevent growth.

We went out of town and left several cacao trees on the patio thinking it wouldn't get very cold while we were gone.  I was surprised to see the weather app say it got to 45 one evening and there was no way I was going to get back to it.  Fortunately the plants were fine.  One new leaf on one of the trees did have some damage but all of the rest of the trees and leaves seemed to have no adverse effects.  I come to the conclusion that I need a reliable gauge to see when I need to worry.  If the trees really can do just fine in 40 degree weather (just without new growth coming in) then that is something I would really like to know.

After doing some research, it seems like cacao trees can indeed survive much colder temperatures.  I wouldn't make it a habit but even where it grows naturally, southern Mexico, it can drop even into the thirties occasionally.  This is by far not the normal temperature but it just shows that even temperatures below 40 won't necessarily kill your cacao tree.  I, of course, want the trees to grow well so I think I'll just keep my trees inside.