To produce chocolate food from cacao seeds it must go through a long process. The main process is done cacao cultivation

Cacao plants include annual crops cultivated in the plantation sector. Cacao comes from South America which is widely cultivated in Indonesia with a very large productivity.

Cacao is divided into two types namely cacao noble and lindak types. Both of these types have different tree origins. Cacao can grow well in various soil types with suitable soil physical and chemical properties.

How to Cultivate Cocoa, Chocolate Producer

Materials Planting

The beginning of the cultivation plant comes from the nursery. Good planting material will determine the growth of the plant in the future because the age of cocoa plants can reach 37 years. Seeding can come from seeds or grafting techniques.

Seeds that have been aged 8 months can be moved to the land. young cocoa plants need shade such as glirisidia, lamtoro or sengon to avoid high intensity of sunlight. It also keeps moisture and keeps the availability of soil organic matter. When planting, planting holes are made manure and pesticides.

Maintenance / Care

Maintenance undertaken among others fertilization, pest and disease control and pruning. Fertilizers used include urea, TSP, KCL and Kieserit. The need for unprofitable plant fertilizer (TBM) and different yielding plants (TM). Young plants, requiring frequent enough frequency with low doses up to age 1 year, but after that fertilizer dose is increased by the reduction of frequency.

Pests that often attack the plant is a caterpillar, Borneo Stalker. Control by providing systemic pesticides. In addition phytopthora disease often attacks cocoa plantations that cause severe damage. This disease makes up the stems and young fruit of cocoa. Vascular Streak Dieback disease (VSD) or wood vessels also adversely affect the growth of cocoa, which causes deciduous leaves and dead twigs that spread to branches and stems. Control of these diseases is to use tolerant clones, pruning of sick twigs, and biological control with Trichoderma sp.

Next maintenance is pruning. This is very important to do, to provide productive branches. Not only cacao plants, shade plants are also trimmed. When flowering plants only require 25% shade only.

Weed weeding also needs to be done around the cocoa plant so as not to interfere with growth. Weeding starts when seeds are planted in the field.

Harvest

It takes at least 3 years, so that cacao plants can flower then become fruit after 6 months. When the development of flowers into fruit, cocoa suffered a crisis because when 2-4 months have wilted fruit. This causes no more than half the number of fruits that have grown to harvest. The ripe fruit is marked by a change of color from the original green to yellowish or red to orange.

Cocoa can last up to 75 years with good care and fertilization and plant rejuvenation for normal fruit productivity. It takes a long time to turn cacao beans into fruits.

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