Family: Sterculiaceae
Genus: Theobroma
Species: Cacao

Growth of Cacao

Cultivation area/stats: Cacao grows about 20 Degrees North or South of the equator in more tropical rainforest settings. The cacao tree needs high year around temperatures with high rainfall. It needs a rainforest climate of about 70-90 degrees Fahrenheit year around to grow. The Cacao tree naturally lives under, "mother tree's", such as banana trees and other types of tall rainforest trees. This sheilds the tree from strong light. Cacao tree's basically like the shade but like to keep warm. The cacao tree can live up to around 90 years but only yeilds good amounts of cacao pods till about 60 years old, give or take. The tree will grow to about 30 feet on average when in the wild but will be trimmed shorter for harvesting reasons when in a plantation. Cacao Pods(fruit) blossom from a flower. It takes from 5 to 8 months for a bud to a ripen to a mature cacao pod. The flowers are pollinated by "midges" which are like gnats. Flowers will die very quickly if not pollinated. When the Cacao Pod is ripe it will have colors of yellow, orange, red and even purple. Once ripe it is time to start harvesting.