Cocoa

[Mitzi M]

Cacao is native to the low jungles of southeastern Mexico down into the northern Amazon basin and so it grows best in warm, humid lowlands. It's an understory tree so it needs to be shaded by a pretty intact overstory to do well. I've seen it thrive in lower areas in Puna, say sea level to maybe 1,000 feet or so. However, I don't think it would grow or produce well in the higher elevations since the optimal temperature for cacao is a constant at or above 70 degrees. Also, cacao is susceptible to many fungal diseases, especially when grown in high densities. For this reason, most of the world's cacao is grown in small patches. I've read that there have been various attempts to produce it commercially going back to the 1800's on the BI. I believe CTAHR has been investigating cacao as a more sustainable crop, especially suited to abandoned coffee lands or interplanted with coffee. Since it must be shaded, it creates an opportunity to either preserve existing native canopy or encourage native regrowth while eliminating invasive trees on old coffee lands. In the right place it could be a good thing.

A friend recently told me about a couple who bought a large parcel of land up near Volcano, and supposedly they were planning to clear the land to plant it with cacao. I really hope these folks reconsider, because besides the fact that it's not a good environment for cacao, I think it's a real shame to clear native understory anywhere on the island. It's just as important to this ecosystem as the trees, but there is even less of it left. This year I harvested 6 pods from my 5 year old tree at 200' elevation (last year was the first year it produced and it made only one pod) I got maybe a little less than a pound of beans which I fermented, dried, roasted and then ground up with sugar to make a pretty darned yummy chocolate goo.

Aloha,
Mitzi

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Native Landscape Design
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