Performance of Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) Varieties to Wood Ash and NPK Fertilizer on Flowering, Cherelle Wilt and Pod Yield

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to evaluate NPK fertilizer and wood-ash application on flowering, cherelle performance and pod yield of cacao (Theobobroma cacao L). Treatments includes NPK 15.15.15; NPK + wood-ash; sole wood-ash and control with five cacao varieties (TC1, TC2, TC3, TC4, and TC6) in a 4x5 factorial experiment with three replications. Data were measured on flowering, cherelle formation, and pod development. From the results, flowering, cherelle formation and pod development were significantly enhanced by application of NPK, sole wood-ash and their combinations over control plots. Application of wood-ash alone significantly enhanced flowering, cherelle formation and pod development in both seasons over other fertilizer treatments. However, cherelle wilt under sole application of wood-ash was significantly higher compared to sole NPK and NPK + wood-ash combinations.  Interaction effects of fertilizer and cacao varieties had significant positive effects on flower development and reduced cherelle wilt in both light and main crop seasons. Interactions of wood-ash and cacao varieties were found to significantly enhanced cherelle formation and pod development. The study concludes that NPK, NPK + wood-ash and sole wood-ash treatments significantly enhanced flowering, cherelle formation and pod development in cacao over the control. Also, cherelle with rate drop significantly with integration of NPK+wood-ash