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....

Tomatoes coming in

Our 21(?) tomato plants are starting to produce nicely.  Here's most of what we've gathered so far.  We've spent some time tying up the vines to the T posts, since they're splaying out everywhere!

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 :)

Garden status early may

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.