| In 2006 I bought a ripe pod from Costa Rica for $15. I was able to germinate 15 (there were ~50 in the pod I got sick & some didn't get a chance,) (I set them in a container with a loose lid with about a 1/4" of water in it,) all of which sprouted. 2 of them took over 6 weeks to sprout, the rest sprouted within a couple weeks. I put them in 2l plastic bottles with the tops chopped off. holes were made in the lowest points in the base. A sheet of cardboard was placed then a layer of marble (for calcium)chips, a layer of peat and the rest was filled with composted cow manure--unmixed (T. cacao likes very rich soil, lots of water and good drainage. In the first 2 years I had them shuffling around underfoot and they got rather neglected. They spent 3 months in a room with limited lighting and temperatures in the 45-50F range--with occasional dry periods. I lost 3 trees during this period, all from dehydrating. One almost made it back, but had too little light I believe. Finally I built a cabinet out of a 2'x4'x6' shelving unit--lining the outside with aluminized bubble wrap (used for heating ducts & radiant barriers,) the bottom with plastic sheet with a concrete mixing bucket holding a couple inches of pea gravel. The inside of the box was lined with window film to retain moisture. Across the top of the box were suspended 4x2-tube 48" fluorescents on a timer. The bubble wrap across the front was velcroed at the corners--eventually the cats figured out a couple ways to break in, and I decided that they weren't doing damage. The temperature over the winter fluctuated from around 80 when I had a heat lamp to gusts of 30F outside air. I generally watered once a week, but occasionally manged to forget and things would begin dying--while the dried leaves always drop, the trees themselves survived this treatment. Nearly 5, they may flower this year--but most of them will be in the local Wisconsin Stout Polytechnic University in their new rooftop greenhouse. At 6' tall they are more than I want to deal with as it was just to have some 'because' I will keep the two runts, which even now are only about 30". Things I learned: I believe that they are tough enough, especially after age 2, so that they can easily be grown inside provided that you can provide a humid, well drained environment...I'd run a pump and suck the water through a filter and regularly pump water into the pots. Keep their feet dry. Ideally I think they should be misted and kept above 65F, but they will tolerate lower temperatures to at least some extent. The number one problem I had was finding deep tall containers--they are a tap root tree, and since I've not re-potted any of them, I don't have an idea of how the cramped root behaved. They're 6' trees growing in less than 750ml of manure which is 5 years old. (T. cacao ideally likes 100F/100% humidity, bright, indirect sunlight. The plant dies if dried out at any stage of it's life, the seeds die rapidly if the temperature goes below 49F. High levels of compost and water--but dry feet. It has a deep taproot.) | 
