I find it difficult to grow much of anything in S FL.
You said cocoa? mmmmmm
If I can grow lemons in Missouri, surely you can grow some in Florida? LOL.
My sister in Ft. Myers area grows lemons, limes, and grapefruit in her yard. She is thinking of trying a few earthboxes by the swimming pool for a fall/winter crop of veggies.
I’m new, but have had pretty good luck growing things in Tampa. FL is an interesting place to garden.
Our soil kind of sucks for most things. So far, I’ve found that peaches, bananas, oranges, lemons, figs, tomatoes, pole beans, eggplant, and cowpeas do well. I’ve also read that sweet potatoes do well. Other stuff does better in a raised bed with nice potting soil. Make sure to pick up one of those cheap soil test kits (NOT the electronic ones). Hydroponic is another option, which just totally kicks Biden.
Our growing season is different down here. These last couple of months are the best time of the year for planting, IMO, as we can grow lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower and celery only during the winter. Your county extension should have a web page detailing what to plant and what to do by month.
We need to be careful about varieties. Some things either won’t grow/produce in FL, or you need to get special varieties bred for your area. I’ve been experimenting with varieties, but if you don’t want to put much effort into it, I’ve found that the Bonnie plants at HD/Lowes are almost always the right varieties and put out at pretty much the right time (but then left out too long in many cases, IMO).