On my last trip to the Coffee Farm 4D I collected several ripe cocoa fruits, in my area they are called cocoa pods. My idea was to germinate their seeds and obtain plants to continue planting in the cocoa farm, something I had never done before, because I know the agronomic process of coffee very well, but I do not have much experience in cocoa. After I got home and was about to begin the process of obtaining the seed I said to myself, it would be a good idea to capture photographs of the germination process and then upload a publication to Steemit to share with my friends and that is what I bring today, I want Show them my experience of reproduction of cocoa seeds. I invite you to continue reading dear friend!
The first thing is, get the seeds
The whole process is very easy, but as with all germination and seedling production, a good seed should be used to obtain good seedlings. The first thing is to select cocoa pods from a tree with good qualities, both productive and phytosanitary. Once selected, the process of obtaining the seeds to place in the germinator begins.
These are the cobs of cocoa that I select, they belong to a cacao tree of Trinitario variety that I have inCoffee Farm 4D, although the ears are a bit small because of the cultivation conditions these are the ones that gather some of the qualities to serve as donors of seed.
After having the ears, a sharp razor and the ready containers, we proceed to cut the ear of the form as shown in the image, never cut in the same direction as the main axis of the ear, since if it is made of that way there is a risk of breaking some seeds.
After extracting all the seeds and emptying them in a plain container, it is recommended to extract the smallest and thinnest seeds, since if they are left some plants with an unwanted and inhomogeneous size will be obtained. Then the seeds are washed to remove the mucilage a little and in this way the embryo can develop perfectly. The washing process is somewhat tedious because you have to apply water and rub many times to get rid of that mucilage that is hard.
After loosening the mucilage a little, the seed is left to soak until the buds of what would be the roots of the seedling appear. In this soaking process, the beneficial fungus Trichoderma harzianum can be applied to give the seeds resistance against diseases, in addition to the fact that this beneficial fungus also acts as a growth stimulator. In my case, do not apply it, so make the purchase online but it takes a long time to get there. He's still in the parcel company. But without using this beneficial fungus, I obtained excellent results.
Two days after being soaked, our seeds are beginning to show rootlets, which tells us that they are almost ready to sow on the substrate, so I'm going to recycle and fill some nursery bags I had in my yard .
The germination of the seeds
Two days after planting, at that time I did not capture photographs because I did it at night, but I can contribute that the cocoa seed is sown with the tip of the root germinated towards the earth and covered with a bit of earth only half of the seed. A week later the root had grown and had raised the grain where the first two leaves of the seedling will be produced.
In coffee this state of the seedling is called phosphorite, I do not know if in cocoa it will be called the same, but it certainly has the form of phosphorus, right?
A week later and the cocoa phosphorites begin to open, and showing some green, at this moment the excitement invades as you begin to see life and green color product of stored chlorophyll.
My cocoa seedlings already with leaves
Another week later capture these photographs, and the seedlings have leaves between 2 and 3 pairs. Besides being very healthy they have an accelerated growth and without using any fertilizer or growth stimulator. This is where you say, wow, it's worth it and you want to continue producing cocoa seedlings. This type of cocoa plants start their theoretical production approximately four (4) years after sowing, that is, the first fruits of these plants can be seen in approximately 2022 or a little before if I do a good agronomic management, no more to contribute I leave the photographs of my seedlings.
Remember the cocoa beans? Well, this is what is left of them once they open to emit the leaves of our plant. The process of plant life is beautiful!
After a successful germination to repeat the process!
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