Cocaine Coca plant as house plant

[Fringefarm]

Coca plants can do well in containers and are quite attractive as a landscape plant. Has anyone kept one alive through the winter indoors? I have seeds on eBay at the moment, Erythroxylum Novogranatense var Novogranatense.

 

[Derschieber]

Coca farmers in South America, when collecting their seeds, pour them into a container of water; the seeds that float are discarded as they are non-viable. Seeds collected from a plant grown by cutting, i.e. clonal propagation, are not viable as they possess no embryo. Most South American coca farmers use this method as it results in earlier harvesting, and as a consequence the chance of obtaining viable seeds from Peru, etc. is becoming very difficult...i.e highly unlikely.

 

[Fringefarm]

That’s interesting about the cuttings not having viable seeds. I know it’s not easy to make cuttings so it’s curious why large farms would do that.

 

[Speed King]

So the answer is....I really don't know because I was thining of trying different seeds. I say find the conditions they are used to IE: soil, rain , relative humidity and try it out.

 

[Nicomorphinist]

Since coca plants grow up to 1600 metres in the Andes, does the top of that range have freezing temperatures part of the year?

The elevation apparently is not critical though rainfall is -- in earlier times it grew on a scale useful for medicine and commerce in parts of Java, Sri Lanka, and maybe even present-day Papua New Guinea/Irian Jaya province Indonesia almost down to sea level . . .

 

[Fringefarm]

Erythroxylum Novogranatense var Novogranatense, i think is the most adaptable to different conditions. I grow this kind and have seen it do well in all sorts of conditions in Hawaii though best when it gets part shade. When this plant is in a container and movable it really can grow anywhere in the world, as long as you can bring it in out of the cold.

 

[Derschieber]

Erythroxylum Novogranatense var Novogranatense was successfully grown in Australia. The government undertook this plantation during WW1 or WW2 (can't remember which) because medical supply imports dried up.