That IS cool...Keep us posted :)

Yes Cool! I like chocolate!
Keep us posted!
Dorothy

Tempting....very tempting. What a nice suprise finding them sprouting already.

good luck!! Keep us up to date on how it is going with that!

Lucy

in Trinidad there are cocoa estates. you can drive for miles and just seeds cocoa trees on both sides. its nice.

Sweet! why dont you wanna say? It didn't come with the shipment of some controlled substance derivative of said plant, did it? "We got 'er boys, move in" :) There is a little info in the tropical forums if I recall. From what I've read they are difficult indoors and are true tropicals (I think z 10, only some plants in ground in south fl). Funny, In the second link, hummingbird was in exact same boat and same zone as you.
Brandon

Here is a link that might be useful: cocao

Wonderful, and soooo exotic!!! Good luck with that.
I have a friend who has a coffe tree on her patio. Would like to try and grow a coffee plant. Don't know where to start.

Oops, forgot to say good luck. That would be awesome if you get fruit from it one day

Well, we shall see what happens to the little magic beans. At least they didn't rot overnight!
Don't wanna say where it came from because it was sort of like a little puppy that followed me home. Followed me home from a conservatory, that is. Accidentally. Fell off the tree. Into my purse. (Cough, cough. Ahem.)
Anyway, the plant that makes chocolate (Theobroma cacoa) and the one that produces cocaine (Erythroxylum coca) are two very different plants. And that's probably a good thing, as far as the world is concerned! Can you imagine! A very special chocolate bar? As if chocolate isn't special enough!
Thanks for sharing the excitement. Will keep you posted!

-Ann

Lol Only chocolate please... Coffee is bad enough giving us all a jolt..:) Good luck and let us now how your experiment turns out...

Good Luck and keep us updated. I have also heard it is difficult, needling constant warm temps.

Haha, I hate when that happens. Thanks for the lesson on the differences. Guess I need to take a trip to Colombia and replant my ... Um ...Theobroma cacoa farm. Well sounds like your knowledgeable on the subject. I reckon them run away beens found em a good home ;)

Good luck! I hope yours is better than mine, lol. I tried with quite a few seeds, and none took.

lol@Brandon

Brandon, I Google, therefore, I know.
Anytime I don't know nuttin' about something, I Google it!
I would certainly be lost without it!

God Bless Google! ;-)

Best of luck on your seeds, you'll have to let us know how they do! As for the hitchhiker seeds, probably not a big deal as the conservatory likely wouldn't have done anything with them but rake 'em up with the fell.

I saw a program on the Food Network on how they get the sweet treat we know as chocolate from the cocoa bean, and it's a heck of a job! But how awesome would it be to grow your own?!?

Very neat. Good luck. I think Karyn grows them as well.

I believe I would start eating chocolate again if you share those bars with me roflmao

Lucy

Make sure the seeds never go dry but you also have to watch for rot. They are pretty easy to sprout. Much of the time a ripe pod will have seeds already sprouting inside of it. Once sprouted they need very high humidity and can't take any cold. If you don't have a greenhouse make some sort of tent to hold in humidity. They are fast growing and can produce pods in a greenhouse but only under optimal conditions.

I get pods sent to me from the dept of agriculture in Puerto Rico. The last time they sent about a dozen pods, way more then I needed, so I decided to ferment and roast my own beans. It made a nice tasting drink. Nothing like the cocoa we are used to drinking because it hadn't been processed. I tried unsuccessfully to separate the cocoa butter. I'd have loved to have been able to get fresh cocoa butter.

Good luck. It's a pretty tree.

Awesome! So cool that you made your own chocolate. Bet you have a better appreciation for it now that you know the time/labor that goes into making it! So many things are like that--coffee, vanilla, ice cream.
Um, yeah. I'm hungry.
Thanks for the advice. Sprouts are on damp sphagnum in a plastic bag on the windowsill in indirect light, and are starting to green up a bit. A good sign!

-Ann

You can sometimes find the raw seeds (beans) at WholeFoods for sale. Plenty of tropical fruit nuts sprout them and grow them as potted plants. I have one that is now over five feet tall that started out as a 10 inch seedling someone else sprouted. It is only 3 years old!

The main thing to remember with them is that the root ball is very tiny, so the tree will never support itself well. This is why on the plantations they knock the pods off the trunk rather than climb up the trees, it would pull the whole tree down.

Mine does just fine coming inside for the winter. It will lose its top most leaves when I change its location (inside for winter, outside for summer) but quickly regrows a new batch. They are very fast growers.