Cocoa was established at Owena in the Southwestern part of Nigeria using four planting distances of 3.0 x 3.0 m, 2.5 x 2.5 m, 2.0 x 2.0 m and 1.5 x 1.5 m which was laid out in a Complete Randomized Block Design with four replicates. Data was collected between August 2014 and May 2017 on the survival count, morphological parameters (plant height, stem circumference and number of branches), number of cocoa pods and dry cocoa beans weight to determine the vigour and yield performance of cocoa plants. The results revealed significant differences (p=0.05) between treatments based on the plant spacing. While cocoa plants on 3.0 x 3.0 m treatment had significantly higher height, stem circumference and number of branches than those on 2.0 x 2.0 m and 1.5 x 1.5 m from 12 months after transplanting. The number of cocoa pods and weight of dry cocoa beans for individual cocoa trees followed the same trend with their vigour performance. However, the total yield per hectare showed significantly higher value (p=0.05) for cocoa under close spacing than the recommended traditional 3.0 x 3.0 m with low population density planting. With the present results, we recommend that cocoa farmers in Nigeria should explore a high planting density system during the first few years of establishment while the trees surpluses should be eliminated once the plants’ canopy spread are becoming too interwoven.

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