Online discussion: Gerry, Laguna

Online chat: Topic – Pod rot and pod borer

Ray: helo...musta? hope d recent bagyo x goin ur place...
Gerrardo: the bagyo unlike in bicol & farther south was not bad in central luzon & laguna area
Ray: been transfered to a new plantation site, sori for d long silence, been kinda busy
Gerrardo: komusta ka, must be very busy, i seldom hear from you now - - aah that explains it
Ray: how's ur cocoa plants? i reckon it shuld b about +3yrs eh?
Gerrardo: I have about 2 kilos of dried cocoa now from my 15 trees that are 3+ years old. Ray: yes...d previous year in new clearing oilpalm area but last early march take over another area in another island, also oilpalm area with mature/immature plantings
Gerrardo: they are from yellow colored pods. the seeds are "maasim" when we suck on them -- is that normal? are these variety good?
Gerrardo: Ders more pods to harvest altho close to 30% are damaged by pod rot & something that bores holes in them.
Ray: yes dats ok, maasim....not too much/often, could cause gastric
Gerrardo: I wrote you & was hoping 4 more info to fight pod rot (other than pruning to allow more sunshine in.) is the cocoa from those yellow pods good?
Ray: yes pod rot, allow more sunlight esp but x too hevy pruning....alwys in wet hi-rainfall, low-lying (riverside/ravine), not-gud drainage areas
x worry, basically if ur in volume production, buyers prefer d 110pcs/100gm or 100gramers standard...
Gerrardo: My other trees (about 100 in the bundok) are beginning to bear flower. I have 300+ but planted at 1 year intervals. We'll plant 200 more (6+ old seedlings - not budded) dis month.
Ray: but f i prefer to supply "tailored" chocolatier (so dey say?!) then dey prefer quality beans with chocolate flavor, can get from gud fermentation processing/post harvesting approache...also in gud enaf quantity to get the required mass to produce the desired quality
Gerrardo: At most I will only have 500 trees. My plan is to make tablea only (that we will supply to friends & relatives….) Kaya dapat masarap.
Ray: u mean cocoa pod borer/cocoamoth...d 1 bore into ur pods….i'd think d bundok planted could do better as far as the pod rot is concerned but x sure hw is ur rainfall trend around d locality
Gerrardo: My two problems for now are: (1) pod rot ? -- the pods become black partially, depending on size the pods become half blackened or completely blackened eventually
the other problem: (2) pod borer? -- makes a big "butas" on good & almost mature pods
Ray: i'd suggest u try "sleeving" = using plastic to cover 3-5months old pods to protect ur crop for cocoamoth control, using the cultural control application...so far d most effective unfortunately x 100% fullproof
Gerrardo: rainfall in Laguna (like bicol I presume) is higher than in Central Luzon….
Yes, a friend also suggested sleeving. How big do you estimate the pods to be when 3-5 months old? . . . about 2+ inches long
Ray: if d butas/holes are big, dey may x b podborer but zeuzera, which is considered milder compared to d infamous cocoamoth/CocoaPodBorer (CPB)
Gerrardo: I can't imagine sleeving done in smaller than 2" pods
The holes are about 1/2" in diameter. From my 15 trees or the 50 pods I harvested, damage by the borers was like 3 pods or 5%.
Ray: CPB hole aren't easily visible, dey lay eggs on the pods skin, the hatched larva directly bore into the husk from underneath the egg (dats y u can c d hole boring in) but on maturity (after damaging ur beans inside at 3-6months old pods), dey bore outside but the hole will not be any bigger than a pen’s dot (more or less)…. dats ok...i hope u can show me some pics...if possible of ur holes damage pods....i try show u some pics of CPB damage pods....dey r more of a "homeguy" - dey destroy d beans inside pods
i mean ok if at 5% zeuzera damage but i'd assume d beans r still extractable?!? try pesticide normally used for caterpillars…..i mention sleeving if its confirmed CPB...... i'd say ur 2" pods would be <3mos old pod
Gerrardo: We're still learning when to harvest and How to soak & dry them properly. Some are already growing when harvested & some grow while being dried. Oh, sleeving is only for CPB. Please tell me how I further control pod rot?
The one where half then the entire pod become black.
Ray: i'd suggest u fix harvesting at 2weeks, so u nid x wory if u harvest say on 4th, got yelowing naman on 7th, x wories....by the 19th, it's still x overipe (overipe pods mean the beans are germinating/grow roots inside d pods)…… pod rot is only gud pruning for sunlight, gud drainage and maybe spray some fungicide, target-spray on infested pods and its surrounding trees...but r d beans from these podrot damage pods still extractable? Gerrardo: Yes, we're learning to harvest before they germinate.
Ray: yes dats d standard, 2 weeks harvesting interval
Gerrardo: No. beans from podrot damaged pods do not look good. we have been discarding them
Ray: u can adjust 10-15days d harvesting interval; during peak months, at 10-12, during lean months at 13-15days
Gerrardo: Thanks, i will send you pictures
Ray: u know what...those podrot beans are ok frend, what we need is after post-harvest of fermentation and drying, u can sieve and classified dem whether the beans are flat, broken, 100grammers, <100gramers, >100grammers.....so those beans are still valuable
k, glad to chat wth u...
Gerrardo: Oh, very quickly (altho I noticed you sent me a video of a cocoa farmhouse) - - how many days do we soak & wash the beans before sun-drying them? I meant, how many days do we wash them, soak and/or ferment them?
Ray: basically we "don't wash" the beans....
Gerrardo: So you immediately soak them (in water) or just let them ferment in their sap?
Ray: after harvesting, the beans are straight away fermented.....dont wash, u wil wash away d pulp needed for a gud fermentation to build d flavor and aroma of the beans....after fermentation, say for a 50kg wet beans, nid fermentation like just put inside a plastic bag (ex-fertiliser bag, like in my flickr pic) in 2-3 days, just until u dont see any "juice/sweating" come out of the bags....den u sundry at 5-7 days to get about 7% moisture content on the beans

Please refer in this blog: Sunday May 11, 2008(Smallscale fermentation)
Friday, April25,2008 (Dry Beans Standard....for export market?)