Trimming/Topping Cacao Trees I am in Texas and have grown several cacao trees that are getting too…
Trimming/Topping Cacao Trees
I am in Texas and have grown several cacao trees that are getting too tall for the greenhouse (9′). The trunks are all less than 1″ in diameter and I’m thinking of topping them to promote lower canopy growth. They are already flowering again for the season so I’m also concerned about that. They have not produced pods yet and are 3 years+ old. Thoughts?
David – we have a freeze for the next few days (!) but I’ll take some photos when I can get into the greenhouse. I don’t really expect to get pods but it would be fun. The plants have quite a bit of lower structure as I didn’t not prune the lower branches as is commonly suggested. The result is smaller branches that, as you noted, may not hold fruit. I hand pollinated last year but nothing happened. I know there are no typical pollinators here. I’ll send photos.
Hello there. Do you have any pictures of the trees? it’s important to get to know their architecture before giving some trimming advice. About flowering and pod set, keep in mind that most cacao plants, reproduced by seed, will take longer to bear fruit, and i would bet that even in a greenhouse, that far north, it might take even longer; 1″ trunk diameter is very little for a 3+ years cacao plant. You should consider too, that it´s highly unlikely that you have cacao pollinators inside your greenhouse so hand pollination should be performed in that case.