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.

Spring Plumeria

The plumeria is bouncing back as you can tell.  The lone leaf is still there but it now has 4 more to keep it company.

These plants really are good at being dormant.  You can see the dark bottom of the plant where it was when it was bought last year.  Then the tannish area above it where it grew last summer/fall.  Now the green area on top is the new growth since it came to the office.

I should probably bring it back outside so it can take full advantage of the spring / summer sun.

One of our friends used to have over a dozen of these in pots and she'd take them out of storage every year to have them grow more.  Some were over 5 feet tall.

A coworker at the office confuses the chocolate tree with coffee.  I can see the confusion, although they don't look anything alike.  Would be neat to have a coffee plant also though.  They're spindly compared to the trunk a cacao tree will eventually have but who wouldn't like to have a little home grown coffee?

What plants do you currently have growing  in your garden/pots?  What would you like to be growing?  Do you have a plant wish list?

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.

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.

Sent from my iPhone

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.

Lacewing Eggs

Little hanging things with what seem to be eggs on the end.  It reminded me of a spider nest I saw once on a show in a rainforest.  These however are lacewing eggs.  They are not some mysterious spider that can eat your face.  The spider really wasn't a face eater either but the irrational fears people have are just that, irrational.

Lacewings are actually beneficial bugs and I'm so going to leave these guys alone so they can take care of other bugs that I really don't want on the porch.

Speaking of the porch, it will soon be the temporary home of a dozen cacao trees in pots until I can find a more permanent solution to where they will live.

Many of them are now doing much better than expected.  They've been hanging out in very low light and a few of them lost most if not all of their leaves.  This isn't necessarily a problem though.  Apparently cacao trees can do this and still come back months later and be just fine.  They can adapt much more than some people give them credit for.  The big tree has been wrapped up with plastic wrap and is ready for the move.  In a few days we will know the results and keep at it.

Dallas Chocolate Festival

 

The Dallas Chocolate Festival is here again.  This is the 11th annual event and also marks the second year of growth for my largest cacao tree, currently topping five feet high.

The festivities start tomorrow and, although it's too late to get the chocolate box, it's sure to be an interesting event for anyone who wants to know more about chocolate.

Speaking of the tree, the office move is coming next week and the tree move is imminent.  Time to get the cling wrap ready and my trusty moving assistant (my wife) so that our plants don't get too stressed on the way over.  My boss generously offered the back of his truck as a means of transportation not thinking of how delicate moving a plant can be.  It would get too banged up back there for it to survive the trip.  Some of the other plants might be needing new homes soon since I'm not sure where I will be able to put them all.

Moving Cacao Tree

Moving this guy will be a small feat.

First thing to do is to wrap the pot, dirt and all in plastic wrap so the soil doesn't move too much during transport.

Next I will need to figure out some kind of support for the trunk and leaves.  One suggestion was to wrap it loosely in paper or plastic but I think I will end up having someone hold the tree steady during transport.

To transport it I will put it on it's side and angled up a little so that it will be able to fit in the car.  It's now 4'3" tall from the dirt up, pot included it's right at 5' even.  Just think about trying to get a person in a car without bending their hips or legs.

Of course the plant will need to be upright as soon as possible so that it will be ok.

When I got the vanilla orchids they were mailed to me.  They came wrapped in paper with other paper wadded up and put between the leaves.  If I tried that it would be a lot of work for just the one tree for transport.  Also no guarantee that it would not shift around while moving.  The little yellow pot is going to be simple in comparison as well as the dozen other pots in the back of the office.  They will need to be moved to the apartment though probably.  Not nearly as much space in the new place.

Cacao Tree Sizing

When sizing a tree you don't actually care quite as much about the height of the tree as compared to the caliper, or diameter of the trunk of the tree.

So whereas the height of this tree is now just at four feet high, the caliper of the tree is up to a half an inch. Compare to the little shoot it started out as, this is quite an accomplishment.  Each time a tree adds to the leaves it has to put in more tubing and thus trunk to supply nutrients to the foliage. The plan is to keep the tree to just under seven feet tall, but the trunk needs to get to at least 2 inches so it can support the fruit. I'm hoping for at least 3 inches though before I allow fruit to form just to make sure the tree is healthy.

Currently it is in it's second year of growth and will probably take at least 2 more years before it starts flowering, maybe a year and a half since it was started in the fall.  I expect the first harvest to possibly be in 2023 or 2024 which would be just in time for the total solar eclipse over Dallas in October 2024.

Cacao Tree Up to 42 Inches

That little growth spurt has now over doubled in size bringing the tree to about 3 1/2 feet tall.  It's now a decent sized office plant and will be finding its way to the floor soon in a slightly larger pot.

Of course it'll still be a few years before it will try to flower and produce but I'm hopeful.  Some of the other plants are hanging in there but none of them are doing quite as well as this one.  It's former pot buddy is still growing slowly and is putting out another leaf but it will be some time before it needs repotting.

The little forest of sprouts is still looking good.  There are a few empty pots that I'm sure these can be transplanted into in the coming week.

Cacao Tree March 2020

Moved the big guy up front so the smaller plants could get a little more light.  He's still producing pretty big leaves though.  The one right in the middle is nearly done growing and will pop up soon but every time he makes a new leaf I'm amazed at how much bigger it is than last time.  You can easily tell the progressive size of the leaves as well.  The leaves near the bottom of the trunk are the original leaves as seen in it's earliest pictures.  Eventually they'll turn brown and fall off but hasn't happened yet.

It's already looking like it needs a bigger pot but I'm going to hold off a little until it makes a few more leaves.  Probably May or June before I repot.

The vanilla on the other hand seems to have stopped growing quite as fast.  Still a little growth here and there but it's slowed dramatically.  The other cacao trees have slowed as well.  probably more a note on how I need to water more regularly and in easy to use quantities.  They definitely do like the more light areas in the office.  Some places need bulbs to be replaced and the plants near those areas are less happy with their location. Still have hope though.  Put one outside today with the nice weather.  Hopefully a little bit brighter day will kick it into growth mode.

Cacao Repotted

We finally repotted the cacao tree into its own pot as well as several of the new saplings about ten days ago. Finally getting around to posting it's progress though and it has also topped three feet tall!  This little guy has really taken off compared to the other trees.

Another couple of inches and I'll remove the box it's sitting on so it can have more room above it and it will still be fairly close to the overhead light.  I want to keep that as constant as I can as it grows up.

I think I see a small side leaf poking out about seven leaves from the top.  Hopefully this is the first sign of it branching out.  This should be happening about now, if not sooner.  Two of the other trees already have side branches and are much smaller than this one so I wan't sure what to expect.

It's still a long way off until we can expect any pods though. A minimum of four more years I would expect.  Before that time comes I should have already repotted this guy again in something twice as wide and at least a foot and a half tall if not two feet. Still thinking on that one. Aesthetics vs. root space.  We'll see which one wins out.  A shorter pot is usually more common in an office environment and would give it more room to grow up but a taller pot would give it more room for root support for the grownt I hope it gets.  Hard to decide until I see how it goes.

On the side there you can see the vanilla plants.  They've gotten so long I've draped one of them over the cubicle wall and the other one you can see the pot.  They're now nearly ten times the size from the time I got them.  Faster growing than expected for such a sub par environment.  I have been misting them with water though so maybe that's helped more than I thought it would.

Cacao 30 Inch Goal

With the three new leaves coming in she's not topped 30 inches in height (measured from the top of the soil).

The pot on the right is where she used to sit and at this point, if she was still there, would be hitting the ceiling.   That should tell you how high the ceiling is from the comparison of heights.  Another 8-10 inches and I'll be lowering the pot again.  Currently she sits on two boxes which can easily be removed one at a time.

If you've been following this at all you can probably tell I still haven't repotted anything.  It's on my to do list.

That being said, the new saplings are doing pretty good. I have full confidence in about 24 of them and fairly sure 3 more will be ok.  A total of 27 out of 40 survivors of this last planting.  I a full grown tree can produce enough to make 2 pounds of chocolate a year that would be 54 pounds of chocolate or nearly 500 chocolate bars.  Still a very small batch compared to most but that would be kind of awesome.

Cacao Survivors

So not all of the beans that sprouted are doing well.  I resorted the cups into probability of survival.  That would seem a little heartless if these weren't plants but in the world of plants it's normal.  Often you will plant multiple seeds in a single location and remove the plants that are weaker and merely throw them away.  This is especially true with flowers and vegetable plants.

So in the bottom left (which is the bottom right usually but I'm tried to make sure all the trees were visible in this shot) you have the obvious dud.  He's already dead and starting to rot.

The front 8 I really have very little hope for.  As you go down the line though you can easily see many of the trees are doing well.  Over half have leaves forming although none of them are really "set" yet.  By that I mean they are still in the formation stage where it's still easy for them to get shocked and fall off.  My revised estimate is that from 10-12 of these 40 plants will not make it.  That still leaves 28-30 viable trees though.  Not bad for putting seeds in dirt and remembering to water them.  Of course soon the'll need a lot more dirt and bigger pots and better locations for growth.  Fortunately I work in a large enough office that there are plenty of places for that to happen.  My current hope is to have enough trees to have a small crop in a few years and be the first person to go from planting the trees to bonbons, at least in Texas.  There are already some in Hawaii and some in other countries that do this, like Che'il Mayan Products, Nina Chocolates, and Loiza Dark.  But here trees have to be grown indoors making it a bit more difficult to keep them healthy and productive.

Struggling Sprout

One of the seeds was having a bit of a problem getting out of the ground.  On more thing the testa does apparently is prevent the seed from sending roots into itself before coming out of the ground.

When I checked it I found that it had sent little roots into the seed holding it under the dirt while at the same time trying to get out of the dirt with this loop of a stem. I cut around the seed to free it from the roots and as you can see it is already coming up out of the dirt.  It had been completely covered before.  Just hoping it's not too late for it to develop properly or if this might be some odd way of twisting the trunk.

We'll see how it comes out in the next few days.  I'll try to make sure no new roots try to grab hold of it in the mean time.

Full Sprouting (40 of 40)

AS of yesterday we seem to have a full sprouting of all forty seeds!  One of them you can see in the picture is just a green stem loop and hasn't really popped up yet but it is definitely growing.

Part of this I attribute to peeling the testa (seed coat) away from the seeds before planting.  The seeds didn't have to wait for the testa to determine if the conditions were right for sprouting and so just did their thing.  Since the seeds were planted in good potting soil there is little worry about fungus, bugs, or other problems you typically find in the wild.

In this way they are very different from things like butterflies who need the process also of breaking out of the chrysalis to develop properly. If you see a butterfly emerging it's best to leave it alone so it can come out and develop properly. Unless you're skilled (properly trained) you are more likely to injure it than help it survive.  Cacao seeds can be nicked pretty good and still grow just fine. I nicked a few of these while peeling them (wet) and they've sprouted just fine.  The part of the seed that was injured is merely a food source and there's still plenty of it left.

For those of you who might be wondering, yes this might be termed growing cocoa. Cocoa and cacao are often used interchangeably although they are technically different.

Cacao Seedlings (35 of 40)

Looked this evening to see how these fellas were doing and to give them a little water, because of course the'll need regular watering, and did a quick head count.

So far at least 35 of them can easily be seen sprouting out of 40.  A couple of them might be moving a little but I couldn't really tell unless I dug around a little in the dirt.  At this phase I don't really want to disturb them and accidentally cause any damage.  So happy they're growing well though and so far no real issues.

Unfortunately I didn't score any new pods to ferment or grow but the Dallas Chocolate Festival was still pretty fun and got to talk to lots of folks we knew and some new ones we didn't.  Looking forward to next year.  Who knows what will happen then.

One Week to the VIP Chocolate Festival Evening

Can you believe it's only one week away until the VIP party?  I'm bringing this plant with me to show people how much cacao can grow and what it looks like as a plant.  Last year there were a couple around the showroom but none of them were quire this large.  Maybe I'll have some competition and get to see a plant from last year come back.  That would be awesome!  This guy wasn't even... Ok so it was concieved.  I mean it was already in pod form so it was concieved seeral months earlier.  But it wasn't planted until after last year's festival.

Since last post of this guy, it's grown over 4 inches.  This kinda looks like a split photo a little to me with the taller and shorter split by the cubicle wall.  If you look on the right of the shorter one though there is an offshoot that has also grown a few inches and will likely overshoot the main plant trunk.

If you look behind the plant on the left you will see one of the vanilla orchid pots.  I decided to give it a little more sun so I rigged up a solid copper wire hanger. I knew keeping a bunch of copper wires would come in handy some day.  It's in the shape of an iron hanger with the loop that goes around the pot but it's so much easier to work with copper.  I had that thing bend into shape by hand in no time.  Yet is's strong enough to hold the pot with no issues.  Can't say the same for holding a larger pot but a little three inch pot is fine.

Vanilla Orchid Progress

This is only one of my vanilla orchid pots that I got back in January.  They've tripled in size and are still growing.

To see just how fast that is I've decided to do a time lapse set.  I will be taking one picture a day for a currently unspecified time from about the same location and see how these little guys are really doing.

I have a newly acquired lamp shining on this on now so it can imitate getting better lighting  that it has been getting.  Maybe it'll help it grow a little faster and with larger leaves.  The current new leaves are significantly smaller than the ones it came with.  It's at least still growing though and faster than I figured it might.  The control pot is still just getting the office fluorescents. Really how can you tell if something really helps or not unless you have a control group.  This not only tells me if the extra light helps but if fluorescent light is good enough for growing vanilla orchids in general.  The light I'm using has three settings, off, low, and high.  I start and end (not including off) with the low setting for half an hour to mimic the sun rising and setting.  Unfortunately it doesn't move.  That's a bit more realism than I', willing to put the work into doing.

Office Bunny

This adorable bunny has been eluding my coworker for weeks now.  Fortunately he's perfectly happy hopping around an munching grass while I soak up some rays during lunch.  Maybe I'll bring him some parsley soon and have lunch with him.

Some of our friends have pet bunnies and they're just so smart. He's not a pet of course but it's almost like having a little buddy at work.  I do however have a good idea of what bunnies want to eat though.  Parsley is one of a bunny's favorite snacks.  Forget the carrot, ok don't forget the carrot, they're good too.  Also watermelon, bananas, apples, and all sorts of herby greens.  Not too much though or they can get an upset tummy.

Note: I haven't really gotten close enough to know if he's really a him or not.  This may well be a girl.  Either way he's adorable!