Studies on pod and bean value of Theobroma cacao L. in Nigeria; 2: Number of beans per pod, with special reference to the natural pollination process

The number of beans in a cacao pod is a component of pod value and as such an important yield factor. Studies on open pollinated pods harvested from monoclonal, biclonal and polyclonal plots and four Amazon seedling trees over various periods show that season, genotype and their interaction have a significant effect on number of beans per pod. The character shows a high variability as a result of the natural pollination process. The excessive variation observed in the number of beans of pods from the clone Na32 in a biclonal plot could be attribute to its self-incompatibility, location and flowering pattern