What time of the dry season is best to apply calcium for Cacao in Costa Rica?

[professor]

Hello Everyone,  Just a simply question that I haven't been able to find online.  This is my first season I have decided to adjust my pH higher due to the acidic soil here and I have read it should be done in the dry season.  I'm in Costa Rica and my dry season this year will be 4 months of which I am half the way through.  So, I was wondering if anyone knows if its better if I put the calcium down now, 2 months prior to the rain or is it better to wait until a week or two prior to the rains of the rainy season starting?

Thanks

[Doug]

I'm no expert by any means, but do you really need to raise your pH for cacao with calcium? My cacao trees are pretty happy here, and I don't do anything for them. I doubt the cacao farm next to my finca uses calcium either. There is a possibility you might want to investigate using some dolomite for magnesium.

[professor]

Hello Doug,

Well the reason I decided to do it is because I spoke with an agriculture engineer at the Carreta last week and he said that Cacao trees will grow at higher acidic soils 5.0-6.0pH that we have here in CR but do much better at closer to neutral 7.0 pH and he said it is recommended to apply Cal once per year in the dry season to help reduce the acidity.  My cacao are also producing (what the black ants have not eaten), however I simply wanted the trees to be as healthy as possible.  I will check into the dolomite also. 

[Finca La Isla]

I’m surprised that calcium would be applied in guanacaste during the dry season.  Seems like the strong wind would blow it away.  Where are you, 4 months is a short dry season over there?  Rock fosfato is another thing to add to soil for cacao, ask the guy about that too.
Peter

[professor]

Hello Peter,

Thanks for the suggestion, I will check into it. To be sure the winds are super strong right now.  They will be dying down pretty soon I expect as the heat really sets in the next month.  The dry season length up here depends a bunch on the elevation.  Down in Liberia or LaCruz its like a desert close to sea level but we stay green essentially all year even with the 3-4 months of hardly any rain.  We are at 800' elevation and with the hills also the sun sets an hour earlier than down in the planes.  Parts of our finca do dry out more than others as it depends on which hill if facing the South sun, but others do fine.  As in the Caribbean islands, in the dry summer it can be like a desert on the West Caribbean side of the mountains whereas on the East ocean side at the same time it can have lush tropical forests.  I checked out a topographical map of estimated rainfall for Costa Rica before I purchased the property.