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So, If you're determined to cultivate this finicky tropical tree in less-than-ideal conditions, I'll do my best to guide you through the process.
First, let's address the elephant in the room: cacao trees are native to the humid, lowland tropics. They thrive in the shade of the rainforest canopy, basking in temperatures between 20°C and 32°C (68°F to 90°F). Trying to grow them in your backyard in the middle of Texas or Kansas is like asking a penguin to move to the Sahara. But if you're up for the challenge, let's dive in!
Ground or container? That's the million-dollar question. Here's the lowdown:
Ground: If you live in a region with a climate similar to the tropics (think South Florida or Southern Louisiana), you might be able to get away with planting cacao trees directly in the ground. But even then, you'll need to create a microclimate that mimics the rainforest environment. This means providing plenty of shade, humidity, and well-draining soil rich in organic matter. Think of it as creating a mini rainforest in your backyard. That task is challenging but completely possible if your climate is warm and your rainfall is steady.
Container: For those of us who don't live in a tropical paradise, growing cacao in containers might be a more viable option. You'll need a large, well-draining pot and a potting mix specifically designed for tropical plants. Keep the soil consistently moist but not soggy, and provide plenty of bright, indirect light. Think of it as creating a mini rainforest in a pot.
Cacao trees are cold and wind sensitive. Most all literature I have found on growing cacao makes this statement. "When the trees are subjected to temperatures below 15°C (59°F) they can be severely damaged and may die." In the real world, from my actual experience, the cacao trees I have grown in South Florida can survive much colder temperatures. I have had trees endure several days of temperatures 1.1°C (34°F). These temperatures caused severe leaf damage but the trees bounced back fairly quickly. When faced with these temperatures a good strategy is to provide some source of heat. Propane heaters or smudge pots may be the way to keep the trees warm. Citrus growers have used these heating methods with success. At some point I will probably need to use heating as well.
A green house sized approximately 10' x 12' and 9' can accommodate two trees easily. The top and sides of the greenhouse will need to be covered with shade cloth to reduce the sunlight by at least 50 percent. Be sure to have ventilation available to control the temperature. You will need, in the majority, of cases two trees for cross pollination since some trees are not self compatible with their own pollen. Hand pollination may also be required. More on that topic later in future articles.
Cacao trees grown from seed can take up to five years to produce fruit, but many trees will often begin to develop cacao pods in the third year.
No matter which method you choose, be prepared for a challenging journey. The degree of difficulty depends on your climate and how well you recreate the natural environment of the tree.
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Sunn hemp is most commonly used as a green manure, where it is grown for 2 to 3 months before cash crop planting and then incorporated into the soil at early blooming stage. Besides use as a green manure, sunn hemp can also be used as organic mulch where the cover crop is mowed and left on the soil surface. The advantage of using a leguminous cover crop as an organic mulch rather than green manure is that this practice will slow down the release of nutrients from the crop residues and allow the nutrients to be available for the subsequent cash crops over a longer period of time. It had been demonstrated that sunn hemp can be grown as a winter cover crop in Alabama, and leaving the residues on the soil surface over the winter resulted in the release of 67 to 71 lb N/acre (Reeves et al. 1996). Research done in south Florida suggested that when sunn hemp is used as green manure and organic mulch, it should be seeded at high rates (50 lb/acre) and the crop terminated at 10–12 weeks from the planting date (Abdul-Baki et al. 2001).
Work on maximizing biomass and seed production at low seeding ratings has been a focus due to issues with seed availability and cost. Research in south Florida concluded that cutting sunn hemp stems at 1 ft above soil level 100 days after planting (when plants were about 5 ft tall) and allowing the plants to grow for an additional 70 days resulted in the highest quality of green manure harvested as compared to uncut or cutting at a higher stem height. This is because cutting at 1 ft increased leaf yield (Abdul-Baki et al. 2001). This increased the N content of the biomass harvested because the leaf tissues contained higher concentrations of N (3.96%) than the stem tissues (0.88%) and whole-plant tissues (2.5%) (Marshall 2002).
Since most of the macro-nutrients in sunn hemp are found in leaves and flowers, use of sunn hemp as green manure or organic mulch would be most beneficial at the early to mid-blooming stage (Marshall 2002). Short-day sunn hemp cultivars will only flower in fall when day length becomes shorter in north Florida. However, sunn hemp is very susceptible to frost kill, and so opportunity for growth and biomass increase is limited by cool temperatures in the fall. Therefore, immediate use of most sunn hemp residues is limited to supplying nutrients only to benefit winter vegetable crops. Another option for use of a sunn hemp cover crop is to harvest the cover crop residues, air dry them, grind up the residues, and store them as organic fertilizer for later use (Marshall 2002). While this form of application is time consuming, it offers opportunities to manipulate fertilizer application rate and timing. The introduction of day-neutral sunn hemp cultivars may also expand the window for growing this crop, opening opportunities for green manure before crops not grown in winter.
Seaman et al. (2004) reported that frequent harvest of the top 18 inches of new growth by clipping sunn hemp at 16 to 32 inches height above soil line produced an organic fertilizer of 4% N. This means that if 3 tons/acre of dried sunn hemp clipped biomass is harvested as described above, it will contain 240 lb of N. Therefore, this high concentration of N in clipped sunn hemp materials has great potential as an organic N fertilizer.
The whole plant sunn hemp residues harvested at early blooming stage contained N-P2O5-K2O in amounts of 123–42–80 lb/acre, which gives a ratio of 3:1:2 (Marshall 2002). Using this ratio, one can formulate a fertilizer according to the specific crop nutrient requirement. Marshall (2002) demonstrated that sunn hemp residue supplied N levels comparable to those derived from inorganic N for bush bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), lima bean (P. lunatus), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), sweet corn (Zea mays), and squash (Cucurbita pepo)
