Are you a D.I.Y. (do it yourself) person? Me too. Whenever I can save some green and do something myself, I do. I have ripped out carpet to cut down on installation costs. I grew my own flowers for my wedding. I even bake my own whole grain bread so I do not have to pay $4.00 or more for a loaf of healthful bread.
Some would say I am cheap, but actually, I rather enjoy the reward of doing things myself. So, when I heard that I could grow my own hoodia and not pay $60 a bottle for the supplements, I thought, hey! I could stand to lose a few pounds and would it not be great to do it for less?
Well, that was a bit of a mistake. I found out that hoodia is grown in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa and that it is a succulent. It can suppress your appetite because of a component called p57 contained in the hoodia plant. This component acts as glucose in the body, which staves off hunger by fooling the brain into thinking you do not need to eat. (Hunger is triggered by low blood glucose). Though I knew I could not develop a pill form of hoodia, I knew the natives in South Africa chew on the stems, so why could I not? Or perhaps make some sort of tea with the plant.
I clicked here and there and found some inexpensive hoodia seeds and some surprisingly expensive sand. Living in Arizona, I wondered if could not just pull off the highway and see if Sonoran sand was just as good. But, I decided to spring for the Kalahari sand and make my hoodia plants feel at home. I wish I had the same philosophy with the seeds. I planted these inexpensive hoodia seeds and two weeks later, I had some sort of little flower growing instead of succulents. Oops! The company would not even reimburse me!
More determined then ever (I still had plenty of expensive sand; after all), I found a reputable seed dealer on the internet and patiently awaited their arrival. I knew I was in over my head because I had now spent far more than the little bottle of hoodia pills would have cost. Hoodia plants are scarce and so are the seeds, but I could no t face my friends and let them know my D.I.Y. plan had failed!
I planted the seeds and prayed for the best. In about three weeks, I had little finger-like plants springing up through the (expensive) sand. Okay, now that is what a succulent should look like! It was not long and I had little flowers on my little hoodia fellows. The smell of sweet success! Well, actually the smell of “stinky” success. The flowers on a hoodia plant have an odor meant to attract flies for pollination. Yes, they smell like rotting flesh!
I decided the garage and some grow lights were in order. Despite their stink, I did everything I could to care for my little hoodia dudes; however, after two weeks they began to whither. Another little known fact about hoodia: even commercial growers have yet to have much success in growing hoodia. I guess they contract disease and fungus easily.
My plants withered away and I had to give up my D.I.Y. project. My friends have not said much. I suppose they are just happy they do not have to put smelling salts under their noses to visit my house anymore (or swat away the flies). South Africa can keep its corner on the hoodia market. And yeah, okay, I ended up paying the $60 for the bottle of hoodia supplements. There is a happy ending. I have lost five pounds so far!
Can you grow your own hoodia? Go there and become a member of our great hoodia community on Facebook.