Cocos Species, Coconut Palm

I live in Brisbane, Australia (Late 27*S) and I have a tall Coconut and a Malay Coconut (both Seedlings) They are both doing extremely we...Read Morell. The climate here is Tropical/Sub Tropical (Very Similar to Miami). We get Wet season (Summer) highs of 30c (86F) and Wet season Lows of 22c (72F) and in the Dry season (Winter) we get highs of 21 - 22c (70 - 72F) and lows of 11c (52F) and high humidity for most of the year (70%) except in the dry season when the humidity can go down to 18% if the winds coming from the West (From the desert interior) but I have got no cold burn or wind burn on them and they havent stop growing all winter.

They seem to be doing extremely well. I had to repot them a month ago due to growth speed. All I have done is given them good potting mix and Seaweed feed.

These by far are my favourite palm.

Coconut palms are my favorite palm tree of all.

I am eager to learn how many coconut palms survived Florida's record cold ...Read Morewinter of 2010 especially in the further northern locales at the extreme limit of their growth zone of coastal Central Fl or those that had repeated sub freezing nights where there coconut palms sustained heavy to severe damage.

It was heartbreaking to see the amount of frond burn/ damage to the coconut palms up in the Miami area after the January 2010 record cold event. Even here in the Florida Keys there was some slight to moderate damage to many of the coconut palms despite the fact we had no freezing temperatures or frost.
I did extensive research over the past months on coconut palms. Even though Southern CA and south Fl have the same Agricultural zone there are two important factors.
Florida's record cold and wet winter was caused by the North Atlantic Oscillation and El Nino a rare event for the combined weather factors occurring at the same time. Healthy and more mature Coconut palms can survive several degrees below freezing. The fronds will burn but a healthy tree will fully recover over the following summer. I have seen frond damage begin to occur in temps in the high 30's exposed to cold winds.
I have seen and read some accounts of a coconut palm surviving 23 degrees in Central Fl after a cold event some years ago. The entire tree looked dead in the photo but they the end of summer the same tree regrew a significant part of it's canopy back.
I wondered why so many of our coconut palms got damaged here in the Keys despite lack of frost or freezing temps.
We had an unprecedented and record cold period here in January. 12 consecutive nights in the 40's, two of those in the middle 30's. I read that the roots of coconut palms cannot tolerate cold soil temps below 60 degrees. We had many days not even reaching 60 degrees here and days with considerable cloud cover. Many of the lower fronds browned and some trees browned up to 50-60%. In the ensuing weeks after the January cold event most of the coconut palms dropped the lower fronds that died from the cold making quite a mess in many yards.

In the Miami area I noted that all the coconut palms had at least moderate to severe frond damage after the January event with only a few green spears in the middle on many. Many parts of Miami had near to just below freezing temps on Jan 10 and 11th. We had unusually cold temperatures into early March.

The extended chill and the cold soils started killing the root systems being that coconut palms roots are mostly just below the soil surface. The trees began to shut down.This is why southern CA. cannot successfully grow coconut palms. Their winters tend to have extended periods of cool and wet weather that leads to cool soils.
All the healthy coconut palms down here have fully recovered. There are a few that continuously put out new growth but the lower fronds keep turning brown. I suspect this due to some root damage or a diseased tree. Once the root system recovers it will support a full canopy. I have noted as of late May some of the more damaged looking palms are now continuously putting out bloom spathes and starting to set fruit. The tree will survive. I have noted several coconut palms in Key Largo that have died or are dying. Most likely these palms were in ill health prior to the cold event and would have died anyway. A number of coconut palms die off around here every year due to lightning strikes, lethal yellowing, malnutrition or disease. Hard to tell if the few I have seen die were the result of January's cold event or just other causes. People replenish them as fast as they die and they quickly regrow.

My visit to Homestead, Fl some weeks ago the palms seem to be making a slow but steady recovery.

Coconut palms love the hot, humid and wet summers of Florida. We have a very active rainy season already underway and the usually hot/humid temps. I suspect by the end of summer there will be no evidence of the record cold event of winter 2010 and the beautiful coconut palms of Miami will have regained all their canopies and beauty that make Miami famous.

I was told by many locals that Christmas 1989 it was much colder in Miami area. Most locales in downtown Miami dropped to 30 degrees and colder. The agricutural and suburban areas west and southwest of the city were much lower. That cold snap was only a few days in duration. Folk tell me the coconut palms foliage was decimated especially over in Naples Fl where they had upper 20's. By the summer of 1990 all the trees had recovered.

Coconut palms are what puts the tropical in south Florida and the Keys. I love the ease at which they sprout and how rapidly they grow.

My neighborhood lost 80% of all it's coconut palms back in the late 90's due to lethal yellowing disease. Replanting by homeowners and the trees are reaching a good size restoring that lush tropical, graceful appearance the coconut palm lends.

I have a coconut palm in my yard. The coconut I found had just sprouted in vacant lot in early 2001. I planted the coconut sprout in my yard in Late September 2001 as my personal memoriam to the 9/11/01 tragedy. Today it's trunk alone stands at 12 feet,loaded with coconuts. It's top tips of fronds now reach 25 feet and becoming noticeable among the tree skyline on my street.

I would suggest to any of those whose coconut palms did not survive the cold winter of 2010 to replant. Coconut palms are inexpensive, easy to obtain at garden centers, grow very rapidly especially if fertilized and watered in extended dry periods. On average the cold event we had of such prolonged duration is a once in 30-70 year event.

The most hardy plant I have ever known.

I wish! It is impossible to grow outside here, and excruciatingly difficult to gro...Read Morew indoors without a greenhouse. However, it is one of the most beautiful plants on the planet and almost every part of the plant is useful. They can be germinated from a supermarket coconut, but this rarely happens due to many being stored at a temperature too cool for the embryo to survive, the nut being cracked slightly so it is easier to open or just that the nut has no germination pore.

You can find fruiting coconuts all over the Tampa area and especially along the beach in St. Pete/Clearwater. There are numerous 20' tree...Read Mores in neighborhoods 15 miles n. of dwntwn Tampa that have mucho fruto. Most of these planted after the winter of '89 and have gone almost un-scathed since. They are so cheap and plentiful in the nurseries why not try one? The area is beginning to show why it's the new z10.

I planted one outdoors when I was living in the Hollywood Hills, CA, Sunset Zone 23 (Newport is in Sunset 24, a slightly milder, more hum...Read Moreid climate). It did not survive. I believe the problem was twofold in that it was overly irrigated in the winter (as we had no temps below 40F that year), though it was planted on a south facing slope. The soil type was rather sandy clay, so that was most likely a contributing factor in it's demise.

I believe it could have survived had I known what I know now about the Cocos requirements.

Coconuts can be hardier than the 10b listed, wherever hard freezes don't affect them. However, they tend to fruit only in warmer areas a...Read Morend so typically only set fruit in coastal South Florida and Hawaii.

Well,I planted on in my Northern California garden in July of 08. As of Jan 1st 2009,its alive and looking as it did in summer..seems to...Read More be still growing as the spear that it went into winter with is still opening.Slowly,but opening.
No heating cables or plastic covers are being used.
.
EDIT: No chance-it died by March. And I doubt the best protected spot does nothing more than get it through A winter..nothing more.
Just as it looking lush in the fall gave me hopes...seeing it die in a mild winter crushes any hope.
ADDED: It been proven that the Coconut palm can be grown fine in the Southern California Desert. Fruiting around the Salton Sea. Rare,but has been done.

I brought a coconut from my home country of Panama. I live in coastal Southern California, in Newport Beach. The coconut has been doing ...Read Moregreat! is has grown at an amazing rate. Since I brought it to SoCal during the winter, I have kept it mostly indoors, where I keep the temps around 72 degrees. I take it out on the balcony only on sunny days above 60 degrees. One week in February we had all days around 80 degrees and it loved the heat. Now I will be leaving it out during the day since temps are back into the 70s. Can't wait for the SoCal heat to kick in and watch my tropical baby grow!...I have posted a picture so you can see it. There's also a specimen on Pacific Coast Highway in the city of Newport Beach, about 45 miles south of Los Angeles. The palm is not too big, it has been there for quite some time now, and it is very close to the ocean. It doesn't have water problems since it is irrigated and gets plenty of sunshine. It is one of the VERY few coconut palms in SoCalifornia. Here's a picture of it.

This is one of my most favorite tropicals. I really hope it will do well over our winters. I am hoping it will get tall enough in a yea...Read Morer or two that it will be above the frosts. I keep mine in a spot of the backyard that ALWAYS gets flooded during storms. And the only time it actually dries (when you dig a foot or two and the soil is dry) is if it has not rained for a few weeks (about 5 or 6). Water will not be a problem. Cant wait for my first coconut!

we first purchased 5 of our now 12 coconut palms at a local superstore. They were approx 18 in high. Now five years later, they are over...Read More 16 feet. We got our first coconuts last year on two of the five. They have done extremly well with little care but MUCH water. They surived the two hurricanes last year with no damage at all and we had winds over 100 miles per hr. We love them so much we planted 7 more and all are doing GREAT! They are beautiful and make our backyard into our little tropical paradise!

Bought a nut from a grocery store that still had liquid inside.
Put it in a 5 gallon pot full of potting soil and sand mix.
...Read More 3 months later it had sprouted!

I'm in the 5th month and it has finally gotten it's first frond at about 6 inches.

Coconut Palms are, no doubt, the most universally recognized and economically important palm. Copra (the dried "meat" of the seed), from...Read More which oil is extracted, is a significant cash crop throughout the tropics. Coir, the fiber from the fruit, is used in manufacturing. The fruits, or coconuts, yield several food products at different stages of development, and the leaves are used for thatch or are woven into baskets, mats and clothing. Even the trunks are used for construction. Of the tribe Cocoeae, and subfamily Arecoideae they are also known by the botanic name Cocos nucifera.

IF you want this palm in Southern California it is possible. They do not die from the temperatures, but from a combining effect of the co...Read Moreoler temperatures, the water, and the soil. If you want it to survive, make sure you dig a large whole and fill it in with mostly sand, also plant it on a mound and in full sun, and NEVER water it in thje winter, or at times the average high temperature is below 75 degrees. There are a few surviving trees.

Well looks like I am the furthest north growing in the database. I live in Michigan, plant was recieved via mail from Hawaii. Planted and...Read More have been caring for for about a month now and its growing.

Tree is wonderful, excellent conversation piece, and adds the element of paradise to any area it sits in, just like my banana plants.

To care for in Northern Areas bring inside on chilly nights, mist a lot on dry days, and just give it lots of patience and love.

this is hawaii...there are coconuts. like them best in somebody elses yard, or along the beaches, parks, pretty in lower valley areas......Read More had one large and many of it's offspring but had it removed as I was not going to climb all 25'-30' of it for trimming and bringing in trimmers got old (falling frond is one thing, but falling coconuts where you may be is another). Called "niu" in Hawaii, it is from S. Pacific and brought here by early polynesians who used virtually all parts. there is something graceful about the tree, but they can get kind of spindley looking when REALLY tall. (used too leave extra nuts on curb, and almost always someone would pass by that wanted them) P.S. No problem with crabs, but rats are a problem. people band them with wide metal, but I have been told that's useless.

The nocturnal Coconut Crab or Robber Crab (Birgus latro) is a delicacy in the Cook and other Pacific Islands.

In t...Read Morehe daytime, they simply rest in their holes. At nightfall, they come out and forage for small animals, roots and preferably Coconuts.

First they cut through the husk to reach the hard shell of a fallen Coconut. One can only imagine the strength and sharpness of their claws that cut through the Coconut's hard shell day in and day out. All the meat is removed flawlessly and consumed with hardly any left over.

Miami's 87-acre Fairchild Tropical Garden, named after the late Dr. David Fairchild, boasts one of the largest collection of Coconut Palms (Cocos nucifera) in the world.

So, what do you do with all these fallen Coconuts that survive the wrath of the Coconut Crabs? You collect them and then dump them in nearby numerous spots that are near the water, moist, humid and semi-shaded, the conditions that are conducive to sprouting.

Self seeds - coconuts float around the world in tropical zone, wash up on beaches and germinate. Trees never straight, but lean and curve...Read More. When blown over by hurricane force winds, they will right themselves.