Study on Growth and Flower Characters of Cocoa in Two Different Seasons

The growth and flower characters of cocoa in two different seasons of a cropping period viz., July to December 2011 and January to June 2012 was studied using the plus trees selected by a previous work on ‘Identification of plus trees in farmers plantations of cocoa grown as intercrop in coconut’. The growth parameters included jorquetting height, stem girth and number of fan branches while flower characters included flower number per cushion, flower cushion number per tree, flower number per tree and pod set per cent. The seasonal parameters like rainfall, mean maximum and minimum temperature, relative humidity were measured and compared to the performance of the plus trees. The results showed that the plus trees showed variations in growth parameters but increase in growth per season for jorquetting height and stem girth was insignificant between the seasons. The maximum jorquetting height was observed at the end of the two seasons in VPS 15 (1.47 m) while the minimum height was recorded in SMJ 33 while the maximum and minimum stem girth was recorded by SME 24 (63.8 cm) and KUL 25 (34.8 cm). The number of fan branches ranged from three to five with a mean value of 3.9. Flowering characters studied showed significant differences among the plus trees indicating the genotypic and seasonal effect on the flowering of cocoa. The January to June season showed maximum performance for number of flower cushions per tree, number of flowers per cushion and flower number per tree. In contrast, the pod set per cent was the maximum during the July to December season which coincides with peak rainy season.