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Post by max3732 on Oct 26, 2018 16:54:28 GMT -5
I noticed one of my pods is ripe and I have a couple others that are just starting to change color and ripen. Since I'd like to ferment the beans from 3 pods I was curious how long I can leave the pod that's already ripe on the tree before it becomes overripe.
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Post by ustedbutler on Jan 2, 2019 21:28:10 GMT -5
Hard to say
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 12, 2019 9:40:58 GMT -5
It's a fruit - so when it's ripe - it's ready. Cocoa pods will not fall off the tree when they over-ripen, and will tend to rot on the tree - if that happens, you risk infecting the rest of your pods - so maintaining good agronomic practices with your trees is important. I would say that the liklihood of you being happy with the results of a 3pod fermentation (assuming you plan to turn those fermented beans into chocolate) is low. You simply won't have enough mass to get a meaningful, controlled fermentation.
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Post by max3732 on Jan 27, 2019 10:59:40 GMT -5
It's a fruit - so when it's ripe - it's ready. Cocoa pods will not fall off the tree when they over-ripen, and will tend to rot on the tree - if that happens, you risk infecting the rest of your pods - so maintaining good agronomic practices with your trees is important. I would say that the liklihood of you being happy with the results of a 3pod fermentation (assuming you plan to turn those fermented beans into chocolate) is low. You simply won't have enough mass to get a meaningful, controlled fermentation. How much time after they change from green to yellow does it usually take for them to become overripe? I attempted the 3 pod fermentation with the others and it seemed to work ok. I only have 4 trees and only a couple of them had any pods at all last year. Now I have 4 pods that nearly ripe, but I'm going to be traveling for 1-2 months. Should I leave the nearly ripe pods on the tree until I get back or am I better off taking them off the tree and bringing them with me for them to become ripe and then ferment them on my trip? Once you take the pods off the tree will they continue to ripen? One of them actually fell off the tree with a little green at the end. I don't see any other damage so I don't know what caused it to fall.
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 27, 2019 14:12:35 GMT -5
Hard to say with precision - has a lot to do with temperature and humidities and over-cover foliage levels. If your particular pods are nearing ripeness and you think they'll achieve target ripening in the next two weeks - but you won't be there, i'd say pick them up to 2 weeks early and store them in an open, well ventilated location w/o breaching the outer pod. I don't think i'd try to harvest them much earlier than that however.
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Post by max3732 on Jan 28, 2019 9:04:56 GMT -5
Hard to say with precision - has a lot to do with temperature and humidities and over-cover foliage levels. If your particular pods are nearing ripeness and you think they'll achieve target ripening in the next two weeks - but you won't be there, i'd say pick them up to 2 weeks early and store them in an open, well ventilated location w/o breaching the outer pod. I don't think i'd try to harvest them much earlier than that however. If they do ripen off the tree is there any way to slow the ripening process such as putting it in the refrigerator or enclosing it in a paper bag? That way when I get back I can wait for it to ripen. I checked this morning and 1 pod seems to be about ripe now, but also it looks like a squirrel or something got to it and part of the pod is damaged and black. That one I'm afraid may be a lost cause. 2 on the tree have definite green towards the stem. From what I remember it was over a week or 2 after turning yellow before it was ripe.
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Post by Sebastian on Jan 30, 2019 16:04:09 GMT -5
Could be - i'm not sure. My experience with cocoa pods is that delaying processing of them once they're ripe results in Bad Things (TM) happening, so i've always done everything possible to avoid doing so. I'd never want to intentionally store ripe pods with the intent of using them at sometime in the future to make chocolate out of them. YMMV.
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