Cacao Workshop at Kauai Nursery and Landscaping

Kauai Nursery and landscaping recently had a workshop on Cacao. Here are some notes from the presentation. My disclaimer is that any errors in these transcribed notes be attributed to me and my inability to take notes quickly enough to keep up and not the to the speaker.

Cacao Workshop Notes

Location: Kauai Nursery and Landscaping

Date: January 15^th, 2012

Speaker: Daniel  O’Doherty

Synopsys:

Free Workshop: Cacao

This workshop will present specific nursery and field practices for growing cacao in Hawaii.  Topics will include selection of planting material, growing in the nursery, field establishment, pruning, grafting, maintenance, harvesting, expected yields, and fermentation.  Discussion will also summarize different methods of orchard management with a focus on agroforestry and shade systems of cacao cultivation.  Several methods of grafting will be demonstrated during the presentation.

Speaker:
Daniel O’Doherty has been growing and researching cacao with the University of Hawaii since early 2009.   Research interests include most aspects of cacao production, but are currently focused on development of best practices for orchard establishment, testing of high-quality grafted cacao varieties throughout the islands, and fermentation. He has also worked as a private cacao consultant for two years and has worked with cacao on Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai.  He recently returned from a 6-week cacao research and training internship in Bahia, Brazil.  

Production Approximations

·         10,000 cacao trees per 15 acres

·         1000 dry lbs /acre

·         Reference: 2 ½ hectars per acre

·         When referring to production, the weight of the seeds is important, not the size of the pods or the number of seeds in a pod.

Prices

·         $60/lb chocolate (most expensive)

·         $1.50/lb is commodity price

·         $25-40 per kilogram (excessively high for Criollo)

·         $8/lb beans (dole)

·         125beans / 100g

·         Dark Chocolate $8/42g bar (expensive)

·         High production grafted trees can produce 2000lbs /acre (and that is huge)

·         Ungrafted trees 500-1200 lbs dry beans/acre/year

·         Grafted trees 1000-2000 lbs of dry beans/acre/year

·         Any production levels less than 500lbs/acre/year is a loss

Orchard Management

·         Full sun or shade agro forestry

·         Pros/Cons

o   Outputs earlier/higher

o   Inputs water, nutrients, fertilizer, herbicide, pesticide

o   Orchard lifetime stress, disease, insects, senescence

o   Cacao trees have a production life of 100years

Creating Shade for Cacao

·         Bana Grass – Temporary wind block, propagation is easy, rapid growth, and is sterile

·         KX4 – Sterile, Nitrogen Fixing

·         Madre-de-cacao – bumper trees that are nitrogen fixing (Liscerdia)

·         Soursop

·         Other possibilities – Koa, Mahogany, banana, coffee, kava

Site Selection:

·         Do a trial and monitor acreage

·         Economics of scale

·         Factor in maintenance, harvesting (how will the cacao be harvested?), fermentation

·         Do not plan to grow over 1000 feet, and definitely not over 15000 feet

Fertilizing

·         When the tree is established, its leaves make a good fertilizer.

·         Do not use Muriatic potash or anything with chlorine.

·         Mulching the cacao husks is good for the trees (can use a chipper)

Varieties

·         Criollo – domesticated. Suffers from fermentation problems.  Has high costs and low yields.

·         Trinitario – Strictly lower Amazon and Trinidad variety (the term refers to any cross)

·         Forastero – Means nothing. Trees from Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, West Africa. A few years ago 10 varieties were identified, its probably close to 15 in 2011.

Grafting

·         Recommended graft methods  are side grafting, bark, and side grafts

·         Graft when green, not brown

·         Air layering is not recommended due to the lack of a tap root

·         Best time of year to graft is May to August (yields higher success, almost 100%), worst time to graft is the other months and can lead to 50% success.

·         Allow nursery stock to age to 4-6 months before grafting

Planting Seeds

·         Pots should be 3” in diameter and 6-9” deep to ensure proper tap root growth

·         Seed is only viable for a couple of days

·         Seeds should be planted a half inch deep.

·         Should be transplanted within 6 months

·         Transplants should have a diameter of a bic pen at base and maybe be about 2 feet tall.

·         Space trees at a minimum of 6 feet.  8 feet is ideal. Anything larger than 10 feet has diminished returns.

·         Try to transplant the trees under ideal conditions (not in the heat of the day)

Caring

·         First 6 months, light intensity should be 50%

·         Water quality is really important (avoid water with chlorine)

·         Fertilizer should be applied very gently. Young keikis are susceptible to nitrogen burn.  Recommended half teaspoon of 13-13-13. 3-1-4 ratio is better suited. The young trees need more potassium.

·         Trim any suckers below the jorquette (the fork of the main stem).  There should be one choupon from the root to the jorquette.

Problems

Bark is bleeding white sap is black twig borer, water the tree more. After tree is established its not an issue.

Holes in leaf indicate rose beetle. Issue goes away when tree is established.  Can spray for it in the mean time. Use Immedia Clorporate (granules).

Harvesting

·         Ideally, when the seed mass disconnects naturally within the pod.

·         Scrape with fingernail and the flesh should be yellow.

·         When harvesting, don’t include the placenta in the fermentation.

Fermentation Process

·         Don’t use softwoods (pine) or plywood  (it has glue) or any treated wood (chemicals can leach into the fermentation process).  Stick to untreated hardwoods.

·         Drying and storage – Use mesh trays, hoop house,

·         Moisture content should get down to 6-8%, too high yields mold

·         Storage can be done in burlap sacks. The important things is that beans be allowed to breather.  Beans should be stored for 2 months before making chocolate.  The storage period gets rid of the acidic flavor. During storage, careful attention must be paid to insects (in particular the cigar beetle and moths).