So I was inspired to grow cocoa after watching some youtube videos by Praxxus55712. I'm going to direct you to go to his link and watch how he does it. He explains everything really well and I would direct anyone else to watch his video I have linked to his name. I just want to document the growth of the plants. The main thing I did differently was the way I mixed my soil. There's a lot of amendments, but I have all these ingredients laying around and organic soil isn't cheap. I ordered the seeds from http://www.montosogardens.com/online_store.htm
Soil Mix Ingredients: 1 16 quart bag of organic miracle grow, 3 quarts peat, 2 cup forest litter, 1 quart earth worm castings, 1 quart perlite, 1 quart course sand, 2 TB blood meal, 2 TB bone meal, 2 TB green sand, and 1/4 cup epsoma garden lime.I have heard that the plants are susceptible to fungi and enjoy a rich loam soil. So I made sure to add a lot of sand and perlite with the forest litter. Reading through some of the articles on growing cacao organically, they suggest having different sources of lignin so that is another reason I added the forest litter which is made up of twigs, leafs, and needles. My biggest issue is trying to keep all 8 trays warm enough to germinate them.
