THE SCIENCE OF GROWING A

CACAO TREE

SCIENTIFIC NAME: THEOBROMA CACAO
HABITAT: RAINFORESTS IN COUNTRIES
WITHIN 10N AND 10S OF THE EQUATOR

All of the chocolate you eat starts from the all
mighty Theobroma cacao tree, or cacao tree for
short. These massive trees started growing in
the upper basin of the Amazon, in the wild the
cacao tree can grow up to 50 feet tall. The cacao
tree is an understory tree, which is shaded by
many trees, which are 200 feet tall!
If you thought the cacao tree was easy to grow, then you are mistaken.
Actually they are very picky about where they live. In fact cacao trees need
constant warmth and rainfall to survive. The cacao tree needs to be shaded
from the warm tropical sun, which is why it only grows to 50 feet, and from
the strong winds that tropical thunderstorms create. Cacao trees only grow
in tropical regions such as Africa, Asia, South America and Central America.
When the cacao trees are very young they need lots of shade, but as they
grow older they need more filtered sunlight. Farmers plant trees around
the cacao tree so that it will get lots of shade when it is young. Shade grown
cacao trees can produce fruit for 75 to 100 years.
When you plant a cacao tree you need to cater to its needs. You need to
plant the tree in a climate/area with:
65+ Degrees Fahrenheit
80+ Inches of rain every year
Shade
High Humidity



THE CACAO TREE AND ITS NON-
HUMAN CONSUMERS

Chocolate is yummy, fantastic and great, we all
know that from experience! Chocolate not only
appeals to us humans, but to many different
animals as well. However, cacao contains a high
level of xanthines and a little bit of caffeine.
Even though the ingredients inside chocolate
have a good effect on humans, it does not have
a good effect on animals. If animals are fed
chocolate then it could lead to many illnesses
such as cardiac and nervous system problems.
However if animals consume too much
chocolate then the effect is much worse, it can
actually cause your pet/animal to die. There is
official information that the death rates of dogs
are higher during Easter than other months.
We are now in the 21
st
century where everything is possible, including pet-
friendly chocolate! This enables your pets to have a chocolate experience,
without any dangerous consequences. These special dog chocolates are
made with low concentration of xanthines, and are designed in a special
industry with the main goal in mind: animal safe chocolate. The chocolates
that these companies produce normally have chocolate flavoured products,
they are still great for pets. The products they produce often have a high
concentration of fibre and protein. They often try to keep the contents of
sugar and carbohydrates low to keep the pets happy and healthy.
In todays world chocolate has come along way to find out how to make pet
friendly products, not only have they done that but have made shampoos
for pets which are chocolate scented. As you can see chocolate has been
manipulated to fit your pets everyday needs, such as eating chocolate.





THE FRUIT OF THE CACAO TREE

The cacao tree starts to produce
fruit at 3 or 5 years of age, they
produce football shaped pods,
which contain seeds that will
become cacao beans. As you
know from the article about the
cacao trees, a shade grown tree
can produce fruit for 75 to 100
years or even more!
The cacao tree produces tiny pink or whitish flowers, which grow along the
trunk and main branches of the cacao tree. These flowers must be
pollinated before the tree can produce pods that contain the valuable cacao
beans. The main natural pollinators are tiny flies but with this method, less
than 5% of the flowers get pollinated. Unfortunately this is the only method
of pollination that the cacao tree has on offer, therefore cacao farmers also
pollinate the tree by hand. This method is not natural, but it produces more
cacao pods. Cacao trees usually flower during February.
You might think that there is only one type of cacao tree in the world, but
there are actually thousands of different variations, which come from the
two main cacao trees. The first tree is the Criollo it is also nicknamed the
prince of cacaos because it produces very high quality cacao, with a good
aroma and flavour. These trees are very rare, as less than 15% of the
worlds cacao trees are Criollo. They are grown mainly in Central America
and the Caribbean.
Another type of cacao tree is the Forastero, it is much more common and
there is plenty of this particular type of tree. The quality of cacao is still
reasonably high. This cacao tree represents most of the worlds chocolate, as
nearly all of the chocolate bars you eat contain its powder. This cacao tree is
grown mainly in Brazil and Africa, this cacao is harder, more productive
and easier to cultivate than Criollo.