home grown cacao

Who says you can't grow your own cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) under standard indoor conditions? Indoor horticulture is truly a democratic exercise in the sense that if one were able to procure seeds of just about any plant, no limit should exist on what one can grow indoors. All it takes is a bit of resourcefulness to find the seeds in the first place. Cacao is one of those plants whose seeds must be absolutely fresh in order to germinate since the seeds are highly recalcitrant. First take a fresh cacao pod and split it lengthwise to extract the seeds. Remove the flesh and the very thin 'mucosal' layer that covers the seeds. Sow the seed immediately in small pots, about 1 inch deep. Any good generic potting soil will do. Water once, keep in a dark warm place (at least about 75F) and within a week, the seeds will start to germinate. The plant itself is beautiful, with large drupe-like leaves. Young leaves are pinkish red and hang limply. Ideally, the plant should be sited where the ambient humidity is between 65-80%. Most homes will not have this much humidity, so one should expect the tips of a few leaves to brown from time to time. This doesn't detract from the overall beauty of the plant however. In my case, the plant was placed in a ledge in the kitchen, where a few Philippine ebony bowls and linens with depictions of the Intramuros in Manila were vaguely evocative of a kitchen that would not have been out of place in a 19th century home in Spanish Manila. In such an ambience, the cacao would have felt truly at home.