You won't be able to harvest chocolate, but the cocoa plant is still an attractive eye-catcher for your winter garden. It needs a lot of warmth and high humidity all year round. The cocoa plant cannot be called easy to care for.
What are the ideal requirements for a cocoa plant?
The cocoa plant prefers a bright, warm, moist location without direct sun, a temperature of 20-30 °C, a humidity of 70-90%, and moist, loose, well-drained soil. Regular watering and fertilizing is important for their growth.
The Origin
The original home of the cocoa plant is in the tropical rainforests of Latin America. There they can grow to around 10 to 15 meters high, sometimes even 20, unless they grow on a plantation. There the cocoa plants are trimmed to a size of around two to four meters. A single tree bears up to 100,000 flowers per year, but only around 30 to 50 fruits.
The cocoa plant in the winter garden
The living room is not a good place to grow a cocoa plant because it needs a different climate than the human inhabitants of that room. In a heated winter garden you can create a more suitable indoor climate for the cocoa tree. He likes it warm and humid.
The Blossom
The cocoa tree is one of the so-called stem-flowering plants, which means that its flowers sit directly on the trunk or on larger branches. Unfortunately, it rarely blooms indoors. It certainly won't bear fruit at all, because it requires at least two plants.
The requirements of the cocoa plant in brief:
- Location: bright, warm, humid, no direct sun
- Soil: moist, loose, permeable
- ideal temperature: around 24 °C (never colder than 20 °C, rarely warmer than 30 °C)
- ideal humidity: 70 to 90 percent
Caring for the cocoa plant
Once you have created the ideal indoor climate for your cocoa plant, then further care will certainly not be a problem for you. Be sure to water regularly, but slightly less in winter than in the summer months. You behave similarly when fertilizing.
If the air in your winter garden becomes a little dry, you can use a humidifier (€179.00 on Amazon) or something else. However, it is better to avoid spraying the plant. This could cause the leaves to easily start to mold.
Tip
Make sure that the humidity does not fall below 70 percent and the temperature does not fall below 20 °C. Then your cocoa tree can grow into a strong plant.
