Cocoa sprout..

13 years ago

Hi!!

For three weeks now I have been trying to sprout cocoa seeds into a small sproutling. I have been trying to do this from the cocoa seed itself. planted in some foamlike stuff a growshop recommended me, into a propagator, put it next to a radiator and then had it standing there.

Now 3 weeks later, I see 2 or 3 of the seeds sprouting, however, the other seeds seem to have a small cobweb like substance on it. See picture below.

Do I need to take the sproutlings away from the cobwebs? Is there still a chance these seeds will sprout?

Another question I have is:

From what length should I put the plants into a bigger pot?

I'm a complete newbie when it comes to gardening ... The idea to grow cocoa is because we have a chocolate company and we thought it would be cool to have a few plants on the office.

Please help me out!

Picture : http://i49.tinypic.com/25tak5f.jpg

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Comments (5)

Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
13 years ago
How cool is that?!?! What a beautiful seedling.

The cobweb substance sounds like damping off, a fungus I think. From general seed-sowing experience, I would isolate the "good one" ASAP, as soon as I felt like I could hand it without damaging it. Let the whole thing dry out more, more sun.
wjp4140
13 years ago
That is so cool! Question, where did you get the seeds?
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tropicbreezent
13 years ago
Cocoa seeds lose their viability very quickly. Possibly the mouldy/fungus covered ones were a bit too old and just rotted.
tiffschorn
13 years ago
I have several small cacao trees that I sprouted from seeds. I harvested my seeds from a pod that I purchased online. After harvesting the seeds you need to remove the white slimy film that they are coated with. Did you do that? Maybe that is what you are seeing.

You did not need to buy that thing to plant them in they grow easy in dirt or compost. ( I grew mine in pure compost). If you think that is a fungi I would take them out of that stuff you are growing them in wash them off and re plant them in soil or compost. Especially because you don't want it to spread! I do not think it is a fungi because I started several seeds (ones I traded) in ziplock baggies with moist paper towels, (makes them easier to ship). I shipped a total of 7 seedlings this way and they all sprouted fine. It is hard to say for sure.

From my experience and research usually cacao gets a 100% germination. You should put them somewhere warm and humid if you want them to sprout faster. You don't want them to dry out, but they also need good drainage.

Other than that I grew mine in small foam cups until they had several leaves and then I transplanted them.
Here is what a seed looks like after the film has been removed.

file://localhost/Users/tiffanyschorn/Pictures/Photo%20Booth/Photo%20on%202012-07-26%20at%2017.31.jpg
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
13 years ago
Tiffschorn, that's not a public web address. If you figure out the URL, I'd love to see your pic!! Enjoyed reading your post, thanks.