Cocoa growing techniques bring high economic efficiency
Cocoa beans, also known as cu lac, cacoyer, are the main raw material in chocolate production. For cocoa to have high productivity, farmers need to do well from the seeding, care to harvesting and processing stages. The following are techniques for growing cocoa trees that bring high economic efficiency, please refer to them.
Season.
Depending on the weather and climate conditions, choose the appropriate planting season. The best time to plant cocoa trees is at the beginning of the rainy season. At that time, the plants can easily recover, take root and grow well. In the Central Highlands, the best planting season starts in June, in the South Central Coast provinces, the season is in October of the year.
Selecting seedlings
To harvest, cocoa needs to be grown for about 3-5 years. Therefore, selecting varieties is of great significance and needs to be carefully considered to avoid wasting time, effort and money but not getting really satisfactory results.
Choose varieties suitable for growing conditions, ensure that they are provided by reputable units, with clear origins. At the same time, seedlings must be healthy and free of pests and diseases.
Preparing the planting soil
Cocoa trees can grow on many different types of soil, on sandy soil, alluvial soil along rivers and even on nutrient-poor soil but shaded and near water sources. Cocoa trees are most suitable for soils with thick arable layers, good drainage, good structure, moisture retention, and rich in nutrients such as red basalt soil, sandy soil, yellow feralit soil... The soil should be prepared carefully to ensure that the soil is loose. Cocoa can tolerate soil with a pH of 5-8 but is optimal at 5.5-6.7 and can tolerate salinity of 40/00.
On good soil, the planting density is 3x3m, on poor soil, the planting distance is 3x2.5m. Before planting, prepare a hole measuring 50x50x50cm. When digging the hole, keep the topsoil and deep soil separate. It is best to prepare the planting hole 2 weeks in advance.
Each hole is fertilized with 10 - 15kg of decomposed manure + 0.5kg of Dau Trau phosphate fertilizer. Mix the fertilizer with the topsoil and fill the hole, fertilize about 2 weeks or more before planting.
Cocoa planting techniques
Choose a healthy tree with evenly developed leaves, dark green, and a trunk that is not deformed. The tree is about 4 - 6 months old, 30 - 50 cm tall. Place the tree pot in the middle of the hole, the pot surface is level with the ground, fill the soil around it and press lightly with your hand to avoid breaking the pot. Water and keep the roots moist immediately after planting.
For young cocoa trees, only 25 - 50% of the light is needed, so the tree needs to be shaded in the new planting year and during the basic construction period to ensure the survival rate and good growth of the young trees. In the Central Highlands, there are often strong winds and harsh sunlight in the dry season, so shading and wind protection are mandatory techniques.
When the tree is mature, gradually remove the shade and can go to completely remove it depending on the intensive farming conditions. To increase income, you can choose to plant fruit trees, timber trees, oil trees or medicinal plants (rambutan, durian, avocado, cinnamon, sophora japonica...) to intercrop in the cocoa garden as long-term shade trees.
In the new planting year, in the dry season, you should water the cocoa trees to help them grow and develop well. The amount of water is about 50-100 liters/tree/time, the watering cycle is about 20-25 days. When entering the business period, the canopy is closed, the tree has a fairly drought-resistant ability, does not need to be watered to ensure growth and yield. However, watering experiments conducted in cocoa growing areas around the world show that watering 1-2 times with an amount of water of about 100-150 liters/tree will make the growth and yield of the tree much better.
Farmers need to pay attention to applying base fertilizer directly into each planting hole, after the hole digging process is completed. Use a dosage of about 70 - 100 kg/ 1000m2/time as base fertilizer for cocoa gardens with 3 chickens' worth of organic fertilizer, or Organic 1 organic fertilizer. Apply fertilizer to the planting hole, cover the soil to the mouth of the hole, and leave it fallow for about 1 month before starting to plant seedlings.
In addition, fertilizing cocoa trees at each stage will have its own requirements and notes. Following the correct technique in fertilizing this crop will create favorable conditions for each crop to grow well, bringing ideal productivity:
Top dressing in the nursery: Use some types of fertilizer such as Dutch NPK 16-16-8, NPK Humax Seaweed, apply with a dosage of about 20 - 30 kg/ 1000m2/time.
Top dressing during the construction phase: Apply 4 times at the beginning, middle and end of the rainy season, once in the dry season with a dosage of 30 - 40 kg/ 1000m2/ time using Dutch NPK 20-20-15 fertilizer, or NPK Humax Seaweed, etc.
Top dressing during the business phase: Apply top dressing to cocoa trees during this phase about 3 times per year at the beginning, middle and end of the rainy season. Use about 40 - 50 kg/ 1000m2/ time with some types such as Dutch NPK 17-7-17, Dutch NPK 12-12-18, or Dutch NPK 16-9-21, or NPK Humax Seaweed, Amazon...
Cutting branches to shape cocoa trees requires cutting new branches to create high and stable productivity. During the basic construction period, each tree should only have 1-2 main trunks and remove excess and weak branches. If planting grafted trees, special attention should be paid to removing the buds below the graft. Business period: every year, it is necessary to cut off the branches that grow backwards, the drooping branches, and at the same time cut off the weak branches, dry branches, and diseased branches. Usually, the branches are cut about 3 times a year.
Pest control for cocoa
Pests: This type usually appears mainly in the group of sucking insects belonging to the two orders Homptera and Hemiptera, this is the main group of pests that cause damage to all growth stages of the tree.
Leaf-eating worms: mainly cause damage at night, if this type of worm attacks the cocoa garden, the stems and leaves will be bare. Worms often cause damage to newly planted trees or in the basic construction stage. To prevent them, farmers can use drugs such as: Sherpa 25ND, Supracide 40EC, Polytrin 440 ND sprayed at a concentration of 0.2-0.3%.
Mosquito bugs (Helopeltis spp): Usually cause damage to young shoots or young leaves, causing dark spots. Leaves attacked by mosquito bugs will dry up, the fruit will crack and then rot, the young fruit will darken and dry. To prevent, farmers should spray early in the morning or late at night with Subatox 75EC, Polytrin 440ND with a concentration of 0.2-0.3%.
Leaf curl virus disease: Prevention is to destroy disease-carrying insects such as stink bugs, whiteflies, aphids... with the above drugs. It is necessary to monitor the garden regularly to detect pests in time to contact specialized agencies for identification and timely prevention and treatment instructions.
Pink fungus disease: Farmers should use validacin 1, 2 - 1, 5% Anvil, Tilt 0.2 - 0.3%, pay attention to spraying the underside of leaves.
Fruit rot: is a very serious disease on cocoa trees, the disease develops strongly in the rainy season. The best prevention is to clean the field, collect diseased fruits, diseased branches, take them out of the garden and burn them. In the rainy season, it is necessary to prune shade trees for ventilation. Spray Ridomil, Alliette 0.2 + 0.3%. Spray 3 - 4 times during the rainy season.
Harvesting
Only harvest ripe fruits, do not harvest green fruits. After harvesting, it is necessary to process immediately, do not leave it for more than 4 days (use a knife or pruning shears to cut the fruit stem when harvesting).
Use a piece of wood to break the shell of the fruit to get the seeds and ferment them.
Farmers can process and sell them to cocoa processing factories or companies specializing in purchasing for export.