Saturday, March 22, 2014

Cacao (Chocolate) Sprouts

Quite a few of the cacao seeds have sprouted and are doing well. Most of the healthier ones started in solo cups, go figure.
I have several in larger pots and they're putting down some good roots. Hopefully in a few years I can get some fresh cacao pods.
It will have to keep them pretty short though since they can get upwards of 25 feet high or more. They're understory trees though and thus they will do well indoors in indirect light. The big problem will be is if we keep them inside the house and the cats want to eat the leaves.  Not sure how this might affect them but they will chew on anything.

The reason I really want fresh pods is because I tried getting them shipped in but by the time they got here the pulp was already drying out and not nearly as juicy as I had hoped. I've had a fresh pod before and the pulp was dripping rather than just moist.  It looked like the outer layer had been absorbing the moisture and getting softer. Not sure but this is probably it's natural way of decomposing and spreading it's seeds.