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Post by max3732 on Apr 18, 2015 14:17:51 GMT -5
I'm making chocolate from some beans purchased from this site as well as a few pods from my own trees.
Could I use the shells as mulch for my cocoa trees or could they bring some kind of fungus or contaminate?
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but any help would be appreciated.
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Post by Sebastian on Apr 19, 2015 6:23:12 GMT -5
the answer is yes to both. One of the huge issues in cocoa is depletion of soil nutrition - cocoa trees can remove a HUGE quantity of minerals from the soil, and if never replenished, the soil becomes very anemic. Using the tree's own biomass (pods, pulp, shells) can be a very good way of reintroducing some of that.
However, as you note, returning diseased or moldy biomass - be it pods, shells, or infested pods - can actually do more harm than good. moldy beans are the least of your concerns - if you have them and want to reintroduce them, i'd suggest one of two approaches 1) grind them up, mix them with whatever other biomass you have (leaves, banana peels, leftover dinner, etc), and spray liquid yeast on it to ferment it (break it down), and return that to the tree 2) if you just want to use the shells, bury them at the base of the tree 6" deep
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Post by max3732 on Apr 19, 2015 14:16:30 GMT -5
Thank you! I'm going to mix it with other biomass and return that to the tree.
I'm in south Florida and having a lot of trouble getting the pods to stay on the tree before the change color and then welt and turn black. The trees look healthy. Any thoughts on what I can do improve pod production and retention?
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Post by Sebastian on May 11, 2015 17:28:17 GMT -5
Sorry, didn't see this until now. are they rotting on the tree? cocoa is a strange fruit in that, unlike apples that ripen and fall off, ripe pods will remain on the tree until they rot. but, black pods could also indicate a fungal disease. If they're turning black because they're rotting, remove them earlier low production is almost always a function of soil nutrition, water, and pollination vectors. improve all of those will surely increase your pod load on your tree. if they're getting moldy, remove the pods at first sign of mold and dispose of them far away fro your tree. or bury them at the root system under your tree a good foot under the ground.
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