Grow Chocolate Indoors

If you'd like to grow a chocolate (cacao) tree (Theobroma cacao), you need to either live in the tropical environment favored by the tree, or you'll need to grow it indoors, preferably in a humid greenhouse environment. The resulting tree will never be as lush as the one you could grow in the Tropics, and it's highly unlikely it'll ever produce cocoa pods, but it can be fun to own your very own chocolate tree, especially if you're a dedicated indoor plant gardener.

Steps

Sourcing the Beans or Seedling

  1. Purchase either cacao seeds or a cacao tree seedling. Ask your local nursery or garden center if they can get hold of one for you. If not, look for online stockists. Bear in mind the import conditions of your country of residence if you're buying the seeds from overseas. A reputable seller will likely inform you of any issues in relation to this.
    • A seedling is likely to work best unless you're an experienced gardener, as it will already be toughened for growing in a pot and is less likely to succumb to bacteria or fungi, which is a high possibility with the seeds. On the other hand, if you have access to a fresh cacao pod, by planting all of its seeds, you have 40-50 chances of getting at least one successful plant to grow!
    • Ask for a "self-compatible" cacao plant, so that it does not require pollination to produce cacao fruit-pods (which contain the seeds for making chocolate).
    • Cacao seedlings produced for home growing may be grafted onto other rootstock.
    • Cacao seeds must be fresh or germination will fail.[1] Ask the retailer how fresh the seeds are.
    • Cacao farmers know which of their plants are the best bearers of cacao. They retain the seeds from the pods for replanting at harvest time.[2] You're not going to be able to be so hands-on, so ask your supplier plenty of questions. Find out the length of time for the plant to bear cacao pods. This can vary anywhere from 2 to 5 years, depending on the variety.[2]
    • Pods can be sourced from a friend's garden or farmer's markets in tropical areas. There will be around 40-50 seeds inside each pod, so there are plenty of chances that one will germinate.[1]

Planting

  1. Find a suitable container. Start with a container that is large enough for the plant to grow in. For seeds, small containers are okay provided they are deep, as the roots need to burrow down.[1]
    • If growing from beans, the seedlings can be transplanted at about 4-5 months.[2]
  2. Prepare the soil. Use a mixture of well-rotted compost and sand to recreate a rich and sandy soil environment. The soil needs to be fertile and rich. It needs to drain well but hold moisture.
    • Fine mulch works well.[1]
  3. Plant the seeds or seedling in the pot. Cacao seeds will sprout quite easily.[3]
    • Seeds must be germinated before planting.
    • Seeds must be watered at least twice daily after planting.[1] Use a fine, soft spray of water so as not to damage the seeds.
  4. Keep the pot in a warm, humid environment. Ideally, this should be a temperature-controlled greenhouse. If you are planning on keeping the plant indoors without such warmth and humidity, choose a spot with lots of regular warmth.
    • The preferred temperature level for cacao trees is 79ºF/21ºC, the lowest level being 60ºF/16ºC, without wild fluctuations.[3]
    • Place a bowl of water next to it to release humidity.
  5. Spritz the cacao tree regularly. Dry air will kill this plant quickly, so maintaining a humid environment is vital.
    • For young seedlings, only mist under the leaves, not on the top, as the pooling water can be too heavy for the leaves to withstand.[1]
  6. Keep the chocolate tree away from direct sunlight and intense heat sources. The chocolate tree thrives under the shade of rainforest canopies in nature. It's not fond of the sun and will dry out quickly, and intense heat will do the same.
    • Do not keep it next to a heater; however, near a heater should be fine, especially if it has a bowl of water constantly near it. Filtered sunlight is optimal. Some people recommend placing the container in a bowl of water but be careful, as this plant doesn't like too much water, just moisture.
  7. Keep the cacao tree warm. Cold is another enemy of the chocolate tree. This is a tricky plant to grow, the environment must remain warm but neither too hot nor cold. As noted in the previous step, keeping it near gentle radiant heat should be sufficient.
    • Some people have success with growing on windowsills but it is probably best to keep any such window well shaded and not to use a window that gets direct sunlight blazing in.
  8. Mist the plant regularly. This will help to maintain the humidity levels and replicates the tropical forest environment that the cacao plant is used to.
    • To help keep a good level of water around, try a tray filled with gravel, pour water into it and keep the container sitting on this. Add water regularly to keep it topped up.
  9. Feed. Use a fertilizer such as liquid seaweed or fish emulsion to keep the nutrients flowing to the plant. A general purpose fertilizer is also fine.[1] Many growers prefer the organic fertilizers.
    • Do not fertilize seeds until the second set of leaves have appeared.[1]
  10. Read the experiences of other indoor chocolate tree growers. You'll find they have already experimented a lot with placement, humidity control and the like and you can benefit a great deal from their experiences. Many gardening sites will allow you to ask questions in their forums and someone experienced may spot your question and help you out.
  11. Continue to actively care for your plant. The chocolate tree is not a good plant for the indoor gardener who likes to leave plants to their own devices and expect them to survive. This plant cannot be left to dry out, get cold or overheated. Even when you go away on vacation. Treat it like a pet if you need to go away and get someone to plant-sit it.

Tips

  • Instead of wasting your time finding a cocoa bean tree, there are some programs where you can "adopt" a tree, while it's in the forest.
  • The cacao tree is as fussy in nature as it is in your container. It dislikes any environment that is too hot, too dry, too cold, too exposed or too high![4]
  • In case you ever get this far, the seeds from each fruit-pod produce enough cacao to make around 3-4 chocolate bars of good quality.[3] Knowing when the pods are ready for harvesting is an art and people spend years learning this on chocolate farms.[4] Details on processing chocolate can be found here.
  • This article has not covered pruning or harvesting. If your indoor chocolate tree ever gets large enough to be pruned, remove suckers that can drain growth. If it does bear cocoa pods, the plant will blossom first, then these might begin to grow baby cacao pods. Unfortunately, many of the flowers have low fertility and may not form pods; if they do, they can take five months to turn into pods.[4] In nature, midges typically pollinate the flowers, so remember to get a self-pollinating plant or there is little hope of cacao pods in an insect-free indoor environment. You can manually pollinate the plant, but the process is not covered in this article.
  • A chocolate tree can grow as high as an apple tree under the right conditions.[4] Once it begins producing, it may produce for another 20 years, while some cacao trees have been known to live for 100 years.[4]

Warnings

  • Keep chocolate trees away from breezes or wind; they are unable to tolerate these drying and buffeting elements. Farmers always protect their cacao crops from wind by growing or building shelter around the plants.
  • Never let the soil dry out; this will kill the tree quickly.
  • The chocolate tree is not hardy inside temperate indoor environments. It is a tropical plant; as an amateur, expect problems and even failure in growing it.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 http://api.ning.com/files/wFvIiebu4VAxrcpTyRRrwW4zZnROS96oTufFfb6SWfHop1Xs7UyvZUshX7s8wdnblL8dMXK4McNle14E6PbJfQV60a6Inrs5/GrowingTheobromaCacaofromseedneednotbeamystery.pdf
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Maricel E Presilla, The New Taste of Chocolate, p. 47, (2001), ISBN 978-1-58008-143-6
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 David Wolfe and Shazzie, Naked Chocolate, p. 11, (2005), ISBN 0-9653533-9-7
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Catherine Atkinson, Mary Banks, Christine France & Christine McFadden, The Chocolate and Coffee Bible, pp. 38-39, (2009), ISBN 978-1-84477-385-5

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