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.

Our Late December Tomato

Our tomato plants really didn't do very well until it got quite a bit colder.  Fortunately the freeze held off until we had a few tomatoes on the vine.  This is the best of them.  We still had to pick it green but as you can see it's turning color nicely.

We talked with one of our friends about tomatoes and how you can pick them green if you need to and let them ripen off the vine.  He told us about when he was little and his family had a garden.  They would have a ton of tomato plants and have to pick many of them green before the frost hit.  They would then stick the green tomatoes under their beds until they turned red.  Then they would go sell the red ones at the markets in the winter.  Some of the tomatoes would take weeks to turn.  This guy actually took a couple weeks as well before it got to this state.  Still waiting a little longer for a better color but I'm hopeful.