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.

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.