Our tropical house is a real highlight of the exhibition - and not just for the frostbitten among you who want to warm up here in the warm and humid climate of the tropics. It's also the perfect place for inquisitive minds! More than 100 tropical plants can be found on the 100 m² floor space of the tropical house: From ginger, chili or turmeric to papaya, palm trees, bananas or sugar cane. But the stars are clearly our eight cocoa trees, which need a lot of care and attention.
Cocoa trees are real divas among tropical plants. They feel most comfortable at around 25 to 28 °C, require a humidity of 80 to 90 %, plenty of shade and lots of water. The big challenge is to recreate the tropical climate in the tropical house so accurately that our cocoa trees and all other plants feel at home there.
As you can see, there is a lot of work involved in maintaining our tropical house! Our colleague Claudia takes care of it. She regularly throws on her overalls and takes care of the tropical house. That means: watering, pruning, fighting pests, adding nutrients, feeding fish, cleaning the pond and, and, and ... Let's take a closer look at some of these tasks and take a look inside the tropical house!
It takes time to water such a warm and humid biotope. The tropical house is watered twice a week. And by watering we mean: Recreating a tropical rain shower! This may well mean letting the water stream down on the plants for several minutes like a monsoon. This creates almost original tropical conditions.
Unfortunately, our tropical plants cannot grow unattended, as there is not enough space in the tropical house. Although the glass tropical house has an area of 100 square meters and a ceiling height of 10 meters, a little order wouldn't hurt. Because you can not only see the rainforest from the outside. You can even go inside the tropical house and see the variety of plants up close. That's why it's important that Claudia trims the plants now and again. Fortunately, they are doing so well that they grow back quickly.
Yes, you read that right. The tropical house doesn't just have plant inhabitants, dozens of small, red and gold guppies also populate the pond in the middle of the tropical house. The colorful little fish prefer warm water. They are fed their favorite food three times a week.
From time to time, pests such as mealybugs feel right at home in our tropical house. They like to feed on cocoa tree leaves. We release Australian ladybug larvae against them. After hatching, they destroy eggs, larvae and adult mealybugs - an ecological way of controlling pests. In the absence of prey, the beetles may also consume other pests such as aphids in order to survive. But don't worry, these little creatures are all so small (and peaceful) that you won't even notice them.
A cocoa tree needs many years before the first fruits can be harvested. This can take 4 to 5 years. There is a small biotope in the basement of the museum. Here we successfully grow cocoa tree seedlings so that they can be planted in the tropical house. Cocoa tree cultivation and care is going so well that we were recently able to harvest real cocoa fruit from the cocoa trees again. We are very proud of our harvest! I tasted it, of course. The fruit is cut in half and the flesh can be scooped out directly with a spoon. It tastes wonderfully sour-sweet and refreshing.
Are you curious? Then come to the Chocolate Museum, stroll through our tropical house and discover the tropical plant world in the middle of Cologne!
