Cacao back outside in new greenhouse setup

After trying several options for humidity, we found a 3 head fogger from www.thehouseofhydro.com that is strong enough to keep the humidity high even while the heater is working hard.  After a few days near 75F and 70% humidity in the inner area, we moved about half of the trees back out there.  We replanted the trees into gallon milk jugs which we hung with a shower rod through the handle.  We made a makeshift punch to cut the holes with a one foot section of closet rod, given an edge with a round file.

New cacao seeds

We recently shared some fresh cacao fruit with family and kept the remaining seeds.  They were partially refrigerated for a week or more, so I hope they're still viable, but here goes!  First, we removed the skins and fruit from most of them, with our kids helping.  Some we left on, because pulling off skins forever...

If all goes well, we'll see them grow longer taproots later this week.  Until then, we'll need to change the water daily, or more often for the seeds with skins still on them.

Here is the page we use for instructions, from the same place we buy our pods:
http://www.montosogardens.com/cacao_seed_propagation_tips.htm

Bring on the pink

We bought a nice LED grow light (Phlizon 'Newest 600W', though only uses ~110W) to supplement our cacao trees.  It's really bright and I'm optimistic that it will help our plants grow well even with shorter winter days.

One problem, though, is that the pink glow is quite visible, even from the street.  I have preemptively told the police department to call me if they have questions, as grow lights like this are not usually used for cacao plants.

On another note, it seems our heating system is keeping up in the inner greenhouse area, which is good!  This is our first winter with a greenhouse, so there's been a lot of work/anxiety on my part trying to get it ready and tuned properly.  I understand now why people use kits and predesigned greenhouse systems.

More greenhouse work

We carefully added a small space heater on a dedicated 12 gauge extension cord (and 2 smoke detectors), plastic shower curtains, an interior roof, the grow light we've been using inside, and other things to keep the cacao plants happy.  For a little while, we had mold in this area, so we added an above table fan to keep air moving well.  The fan under the table blows air over several very large bags of water, which we hope are working as a thermal mass to keep temperatures more stable.

We also moved a bunch of plants (banana, dragonfruit, strawberry, pineapple) into the outer area or the greenhouse to help protect them from upcoming frost this winter.  It seems like we're getting closer to keeping things alive this winter; wish us luck!

First plants in greenhouse!

Today, we built a platform for our cacao plants and moved the outdoor or into the green house.  We've got the misting system from before, a small fan, and an old phone turned WiFi camera.  I'm excited to see how things grow in here.  I'm also trying to figure out exactly how we'll keep this warm in the winter, though we have some ideas.

Indoor cacao doing well

The indoor plants are doing really well, benefiting from consistent temperatures and regular watering.

In the front is a Cinnamon tree we ordered online.

Chocolate Bananas

I removed the roofing from our shed overhang today in preparation for our shed to greenhouse conversion project (yay!).  However, this sent the temperature in the tiny greenhouse skyrocketing over 107 F!  I got the mister running continuously which shaved off about 9 degrees, but the temp started rising again!

I've heard that some farms use banana trees to shade cacao trees, so I'm trying that now!  Banana and chocolate, together like they should be ;)

First mold :/

We had the fan off on our indoor greenhouse more than usual lately.  As a result, we've got some mold.  Since it's on the soil instead of the leaves, it's probably not a huge deal, but we're going to take some measures just in case.  The garden employees suggested corn meal and using a fan.  We've got the fan and light on an auto timer now to keep things consistent.

Cacao fertilizer time

It's time for the first fertilizer for the cacao trees!  I'm using 1 tsp of slow release fertilizer for each blue cup, or 3 tsp for the much larger pots.  For now, we're only fertilizing the indoor plants, in case this burns them or something.  Hopefully it goes well!

Cacao repotting and small outdoor greenhouse

Our cacao trees have been growing up and getting taller, so it's time to move them out of their tiny cups.  Following the advice on the Montoso gardens site, we moved them to larger pots (large cups in our case) and used a ~ 1:1:1 mix of perlite, compost, and peat moss. (picture only shows perlite and compost in the mixing bin)

We also needed to split out the plants to another little greenhouse, since they wouldn't fit.  We decided to try putting some of them outside.  We looked around for the right location (the mini greenhouse gets to 135F in all-day full sun!) and settled on a corner under an overhang near our shed.  The goal is to give the greenhouse full sun for either the morning or evening, where the sunlight will be less intense and the heat less of an issue.  Also, we've set up an automatic watering system with 2 misters to keep the humidity high and take the edge off the outside temperature.  100+ degree F temperature might be a challenge for cacao, as it seems they're not normally grown in weather that hot.

As before, we're using our SensorPush humidity + temperature sensor (the tiny box in the top corner of the greenhouse) to track the environment carefully.  It really helps us profile the changes through the day to help keep our plants happy :)

Big leaves, all up!

The cacao plants are getting bigger; we're  almost ready to move them into larger pots and split their greenhouse.

Plants at attention!

The cacao plants are picking up their leaves.  It's odd that they start out pointing down, but I think they'll all be pointing out soon.

Outside the safe haven

We pulled out 2 cacao seedlings to see if they can survive in the much drier environment outside the little greenhouse.  Time will tell, but it would be nice to not have to baby these so much...

Big Cacao Leaves

The leaves are getting big now, probably over 4 inches on some plants.  What's strange is that they're all hanging down!

I hypothesize this is an adaptation to help them on a littered jungle floor to pull their leaves up through the brush before opening them on top.  Whether that's true or not, I think some of them are starting to angle their leaves out some, so they probably won't stay like this for long.

We're preparing another little greenhouse like this one so we can split the group up and give them more space.  They'll also need larger cups soon!

Tiny cacao leaves

The cacao plants are growing up and getting real leaves!

Mid-June Garden Status

Status post for mid-June 2018.  Our two apple trees (a Fuji and an Anna apple) are planted and seem to be doing well.  Our tomatoes are producing fairly well, though we tied them up a bit late, so they look scraggly.  Peanut plants are getting larger.  They used to have flowers but now don't - this worries me since that's happened before, but we'll have to see how it goes.  Our watermelon plants (3 of them) are going insane, flowing off the garden bed and several feet out into the yard.  We have at least 3 watermelons so far, with the largest about the size of a large tomato (?).  Our strawberry plants (forgot a picture) have been branching out, the lettuce and snap peas have died off.  The tiny lentil plants are still growing, but not making much progress.  The grapes are a mixed bag - some are attached to the wire, while others haven't made it yet.  Blackberries are doing well, but need some grass trimming done soon.  In the back yard, our large Pecan tree is putting on leaves, but, despite us hearing about this being a fruiting year for pecans, we can't see any signs of fruit just yet.  The blueberry patch is doing ok in the dedicated peat moss bed.  Finally, the cacao seeds are rising up and starting to get tiny leaves inside.  I think we only have 2 that haven't picked up their seed heads so far.

Sorry for the wall of text; I write these in a hurry these days....

Cacao sprouts

After some time in a high humidity, high temperature environment, the sprouts are growing!  We try to keep it around 70% humidity and 70-80°F.

We use a fan and grow light during the day, a reptile enclosure humidifier as needed, a heating pad occasionally, a temperature and humidity monitor from SensorPush.  We mist + water twice a day.

When we first planted them, we mixed up a high drainage mix of 50% Perlite and 50% potting soil (kids helped).  Initially, we covered them with Spanish moss to help keep things moist.

Sprouting cacao seeds!

Lots of potential chocolate trees!

Got cacao/cocoa(?) pod from Montoso gardens in Puerto Rico via priority mail :)

Chocolate Making Supplies

We learned how to make great chocolate from scratch from chocolatealchemy.com

We've got a special occasion coming up, so I bought enough cacao beans (20 lb!) to make several batches (shipping was expensive).  I'll try to post pictures of the process and/or product(s) later.