How are the Texas Coconuts Fairing this Winter?

[Xerarch]

I always keep my eye on weather and I've noticed quit a bit of coolness in south Texas this winter. No freezing temps from Corpus south, at least near the coast but there seems to be quite a pattern of cool temps. Definitely not the very warm winter that peninsular Florida seems to be experiencing, even when comparing areas whose averages are similar.

So has the temperature had much of a negative effect on the Coconuts? The cool season down there is much shorter than in California and temps will start swinging up before too long, so, I hope all is okay and there will be no freezes this year.

[Xenon]

I've been following the weather too...don't think South Padre Island has been much above 70F so far this January. Absolute lows have only been in the upper 30s...but the weather is running 8-10 degrees below average. Very worried about the coconuts At least December was above average...lowest temp was in the upper 40s.

[richtrav]

The only thing I've noticed cold damage on is some of the touchier crotons, just now showing up, which look like they're going to drop some leaves. Most Cocos that are left here after 2011 or last year's cool winter are pretty tough. There has been quite a bit of cool wet weather but little time below 40, less than last year. Most of the cold came in the middle of November and first half of January, December was a bit above normal. It can take some time, though, for "cool" damage to show up in coconuts. There is a particularly nice coconut in Weslaco that looked better than it should have last year, I'll see how it looks a month from now.

[Xerarch]

Thanks for the responses, you know we really don't have many PT'rs is S Texas. At least not that have been posing a lot lately. Maybe Mr. Coconut Palm will chime in, this should be right up his alley.

richtrav, I presume you are somewhere in the RGV? Do you have photos of that Weslaco coconut?

[Moose]

The only thing I've noticed cold damage on is some of the touchier crotons, just now showing up, which look like they're going to drop some leaves. Most Cocos that are left here after 2011 or last year's cool winter are pretty tough. There has been quite a bit of cool wet weather but little time below 40, less than last year. Most of the cold came in the middle of November and first half of January, December was a bit above normal. It can take some time, though, for "cool" damage to show up in coconuts. There is a particularly nice coconut in Weslaco that looked better than it should have last year, I'll see how it looks a month from now.

OMG - a croton guy in Texas ! Rich - Crotons are excellent plants to gauge how well Coconuts are fairing against the cold. If crotons defoliate but the stems remain green (no die back) then the Coconuts will be OK. Crotons are kind of an immediate indicator as to what to expect cold damage wise on the Coconuts - as you said, takes time to be observable.

Here is a link to a Croton Forum you may like to visit: http://www.palmpedia.net/forum/forums/the-croton-society.26/

[Xerarch]

The only thing I've noticed cold damage on is some of the touchier crotons, just now showing up, which look like they're going to drop some leaves. Most Cocos that are left here after 2011 or last year's cool winter are pretty tough. There has been quite a bit of cool wet weather but little time below 40, less than last year. Most of the cold came in the middle of November and first half of January, December was a bit above normal. It can take some time, though, for "cool" damage to show up in coconuts. There is a particularly nice coconut in Weslaco that looked better than it should have last year, I'll see how it looks a month from now.

OMG - a croton guy in Texas ! Rich - Crotons are excellent plants to gauge how well Coconuts are fairing against the cold. If crotons defoliate but the stems remain green (no die back) then the Coconuts will be OK. Crotons are kind of an immediate indicator as to what to expect cold damage wise on the Coconuts - as you said, takes time to be observable.

Here is a link to a Croton Forum you may like to visit: http://www.palmpedia.net/forum/forums/the-croton-society.26/

Good to know!

[oliver]

Hey Richard - glad to see you here. Guess you haven't been in the Valley recently. As you said, it has been a little cold but nothing below 38 in Brownsville, and only once or twice at night. Xerarch and Xenon, there are three mature coconuts remaining in Brownsville that I know of. I don't know of any on SPI. Mine shot a crappy leaf in May last year after a much colder winter, but it is trucking on. I have attached a picture. I need to trim some dead old leaves but the crown looks fine - will need to wait a few months before the verdict is in. Beside it are its neighbors Clinostigma and Carpoxylon which are also thriving. I also went a little sideways from this thread since Richard is here and attached a pic of what I believe is the largest Coccothrinax in Texas. (species unknown but it is 10 years from seedling)

[Josh-O]

whats the palm to the left of the cocothrinax?

[richtrav]

Thad has a Coccothrinax (proctorii or readii?) at his old place in Santa Rosa that is quite tall, it's been a couple of years since I've seen it though. The Cocco at your office is the best looking one I've seen in TX, the Caribbean fans in general are excellent for playing with here.

I'm still here in the Valley, just haven't made it to Brownsville much. Now I have been taking advantage of those $130 r/t plane tickets from the border into Mexico though so this has been the first real traveling I've done there since '09.

And yeah I kinda like crotons but am sticking to the tougher ones, I don't like hauling pots around every time someone throws an ice cube out. Ken in Weslaco has gone mad over them, something to take his mind away from bromeliads i guess, those can be frustrating if you don't know which types suffer from the water here (= a LOT). On the whole tis are good for collecting (I know about the website, just haven't looked at it in some time).

But 2015 will be the year of the Argentine plant, other stuff is going on the back burner for now. That palm on the right by the way, appears to be Acrocomia mexicana from Barra del Tordo, N of Tampico.

[richtrav]

Thad has a Coccothrinax (proctorii or readii?) at his old place in Santa Rosa that is quite tall, it's been a couple of years since I've seen it though. The Cocco at your office is the best looking one I've seen in TX, the Caribbean fans in general are excellent for playing with here.

I'm still here in the Valley, just haven't made it to Brownsville much. Now I have been taking advantage of those $130 r/t plane tickets from the border into Mexico though so this has been the first real traveling I've done there since '09.

And yeah I kinda like crotons but am sticking to the tougher ones, I don't like hauling pots around every time someone throws an ice cube out. Ken in Weslaco has gone mad over them, something to take his mind away from bromeliads i guess, those can be frustrating if you don't know which types suffer from the water here (= a LOT). On the whole tis are good for collecting (I know about the website, just haven't looked at it in some time).

But 2015 will be the year of the Argentine plant, other stuff is going on the back burner for now. That palm on the right by the way, appears to be Acrocomia mexicana from Barra del Tordo, N of Tampico.

[oliver]

The palm next to the coccothrinax is an Acrocomia, but I do not know the species. I got it from Glynn a few years back. It is flowering and producing seed.

[Really full garden]

The palm next to the coccothrinax is an Acrocomia, but I do not know the species. I got it from Glynn a few years back. It is flowering and producing seed.

Oliver, it would be great to see more photos from your garden. I grew up in the Valley and it was my first taste of the "Tropics".My brother and his wife are house shopping now in the Harlingen area.They want me to landscape their new garden.

[richtrav]

The acrocomia is mexicana, it came from north of Tampico near Barra del Tordo.

[richtrav]

This is the coconut in Weslaco, taken today

[Xerarch]

Excellent! Although not exactly of Caribbean island quality this is great to have in Texas, and this is during a cooler than average winter following a cool winter last year. Shame there aren't more of these in S. Texas, I understand that there are some laws in the way of getting more coconuts into Texas for planting?

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Hello Everyone,

Unfortunately, my three Green Malayan coconut palms are not doing very well since we had almost two straight weeks of highs only in the low 40's to low 60's, with lows in the 30's and 40's. It was really wet off and on throughout this period. My oldest coconut that has about 15 inches of woody trunk had its new spear leaf turn brown and collapse just several days ago. Even though we had a very chilly winter last winter, the whole interior part of the crown stayed green and even had a new leaf open up last January. My other two, the tallest one further out in the yard is very brown but the newest opening leaf still has about 60% green on it and the spear coming up the middle is still green. My smaller one in the backyard had its new leaf that was opening collapse too and the whole crown is very brown with just a little green in the middle of the crown.

I have applied Consan's Triple Action 20 once and Bonide's Copper Fungicide for organic gardening twice over the winter to them. Also, as an experiment, I poured about half a bottle of hydrogen peroxide down the middle of the crown of the smallest one the other day. I have also applied Medina Hast Gro 12-4-8 about 4 times throughout the winter and Liquid Seaweed for added Potassium once or twice. I should know in the next 3-4 weeks if they are going to pull through. I have a smaller coconut palm in a 15 gal. pot that still has a very green new leaf opening and about 50% of the rest of the crown that is still green. It is only about 3ft. tall in overall height, and yet it seems to have done better than the others in the ground, even though I have left it out all winter. Our lowest temp at my place so far has been 36.3F, but we have been in the 30's for a total of about 7 or 8 nights throughout the winter. The airport has only gotten down to 33F, so far, when usually the airport would have gotten down to about 26F at least once. Here where I live, in a normal winter, we would get down to about 31F or 32F once each winter. We got up to 80.0F at my place and 83F at the airport today, so hopefully the really chilly weather is over.

I will try to post some photos of my coconuts later this week.

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

By the Way, Richard, that is a very nice looking coconut palm in Weslaco. It rivals some really nice ones I have seen in Brownsville and South Padre. As large as it is, if they would keep it watered in the hot dry months, it should have some coconuts hanging on it. I have a client in Brownsville whose palms I fertilize twice a year who has a Green Malayan that has coconuts on it. It is about 21ft. tall in overall height with at least 8 ft. of woody trunk. I will try to post some photos of it and his other smaller coconuts later this week.

[Cluster]

I hope it all goes well with your coconuts, while the temperatures were not freezing, they did stay low for quiet some time.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Thanks Cluster. I hope they make it too. I may have been optimistic thinking that I will know one way or the other in the next 3-4 weeks, since in some cases, it can takes months to know if a palm is going to recover from winter cold. I wish our coconut palms here in the Corpus Christi are could look like the better ones in Madeira, but we do have some in the Rio Grande Valley about 150 miles south of Corpus Christi that rival the ones on your beautiful island.

There is one here in Corpus Christi on the east end of Ocean Drive along the bay front in a perfect microclimate on the south side of a two story house that still looks pretty good. It is the best and largest one in the Corpus Christi area, with about 10 ft. of woody trunk and about another 10-11 ft. of crown above that. It even has a few small coconuts on it, but unfortunately, the home owner seems to always cut them off before they have a chance to fully develop (kind of like what they do in Madeira). If I could ever get a fully developed ripe coconut off this palm, it might produce a somewhat more cold hardy offspring more suited to this area since it has survived a few pretty bad winters here. I doubt I could ever get a coconut off of it or any decent photos of it since it is behind a gated fence up by the house.

[richtrav]

Another coconut that has been around over a decade, hiding between much more common royals and queens.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Another nice looking Texas coconut with probably about 8-10 ft. of woody trunk. Richard, which city in the Valley is it in? Almost all the better looking coconuts that I know of in the Valley are in Cameron County, closer to the coast, since the mid and upper Valley can get pretty chilly at night in the winter.

[richtrav]

It's actually between McAllen and Edinburg

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

That's surprising that one that far inland could look that good. I bet the ones in the lower Valley would look even better than they do and have coconuts on them every year if people would just keep them watered more during the hot dry months.

[Coconutman]

https://goo.gl/maps/JYdsI

Looking around in Matamoros, this have to be one of the tallest cocos near S.Texas.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Coconutman

[Xenon]

There are actually a lot of them on google maps streetview in Matamoros, every few streets or so. I think they're more common there because they're more easily available. Before 2011 (2010?), nearly every street was lined with large Ficus benjamina. Matamoros certainly looks more tropical...Ficus and Delonix regia everywhere...roads lined with royal palms...Climate is pretty much the same as in Brownsville, the city recorded the same lows in the freezes of 2010 and 2011.

Edited April 18, 2015 by Xenon

[palmsOrl]

This is the coconut in Weslaco, taken today

This is similar to how a few of the local larger Cocos look in my area right now, after the past winter. In fact, it seems that this is about the average spring appearance for Cocos in the immediate Orlando area after an average winter. Not beachside in Bora Bora (or Miami for that matter) but good enough to keep planting tons of new coconuts. By the end of summer, most of the well-cared for ones here look healthy and fully green, with perhaps a less full crown than those further south.

I'm glad to see that S. Texas continues to have a surprising amount of coconut palms!

Regarding royals, if coastal S. Texas has an abundance of royal palms in some areas, our area should have way more than it does, as I actually see very few driving around the Orlando area currently. Cocos may never be that common, or last for decades, but royals...

Edited April 18, 2015 by palmsOrl

[Xenon]

All within 10 miles of the border! Wonder if they survived the freeezes..considering the ones I knew of in Texas did, they must be quite tall by now! Texas needs more coconuts!

This one looks like could be pretty tall: https://goo.gl/maps/GOieF (crown in the distance)

More trunking coconuts:

https://goo.gl/maps/UxUPl

https://goo.gl/maps/jyOTu

https://goo.gl/maps/tqiKQ

https://goo.gl/maps/EOrze

https://goo.gl/maps/MClYO

https://goo.gl/maps/1HiH5

https://goo.gl/maps/DDuwk

https://goo.gl/maps/UovCm

https://goo.gl/maps/Tf0SM

https://goo.gl/maps/R6Luj

https://goo.gl/maps/K0qK2

Oh and here is a larger one I found in Texas: https://goo.gl/maps/sK8lF (not sure if it died due to powerlines or to the freeze or both)

Edited April 18, 2015 by Xenon

[Coconutman]

This is the coconut in Weslaco, taken today

This is similar to how a few of the local larger Cocos look in my area right now, after the past winter. In fact, it seems that this is about the average spring appearance for Cocos in the immediate Orlando area after an average winter. Not beachside in Bora Bora (or Miami for that matter) but good enough to keep planting tons of new coconuts. By the end of summer, most of the well-cared for ones here look healthy and fully green, with perhaps a less full crown than those further south.

I'm glad to see that S. Texas continues to have a surprising amount of coconut palms!

Regarding royals, if coastal S. Texas has an abundance of royal palms in some areas, our area should have way more than it does, as I actually see very few driving around the Orlando area currently. Cocos may never be that common, or last for decades, but royals...

Nice to hear that coconuts are still going strong in Orlando/Central Florida.If anybody think that one would a produce a viable seed inland?

[Xenon]

Does anyone know how the coconuts on South Padre Island fared this past winter?

[Coconutman]

All within 10 miles of the border! Wonder if they survived the freeezes..considering the ones I knew of in Texas did, they must be quite tall by now! Texas needs more coconuts!

This one looks like could be pretty tall: https://goo.gl/maps/GOieF (crown in the distance)

More trunking coconuts:

https://goo.gl/maps/UxUPl

https://goo.gl/maps/jyOTu

https://goo.gl/maps/tqiKQ

https://goo.gl/maps/EOrze

https://goo.gl/maps/MClYO

https://goo.gl/maps/1HiH5

https://goo.gl/maps/DDuwk

https://goo.gl/maps/UovCm

https://goo.gl/maps/Tf0SM

https://goo.gl/maps/R6Luj

https://goo.gl/maps/K0qK2

Oh and here is a larger one I found in Texas: https://goo.gl/maps/sK8lF (not sure if it died due to powerlines or to the freeze or both)

Those are some fine specimens there!Looking at some of the fruiting ones recall some I saw in Clearwater and Cocoa beach a while back.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Hey Jonathon,

I have a client in Brownsville that has four living Green Malayans that are in an exposed area along a Resaca and they survived this past winter. The tallest one is about 21ft. in overall height and has a few small nuts on it. Two of the others had a few flower stalks forming and they have only about 3.5 ft. of woody trunk! I fertilize 40 palms for him twice a year with MicroLife All Biological Organic Fertilizer, and since I have been fertilizing them, they have started producing. So, anyway, I assume that if his Green Malayans survived the winter, the coconut palms on South Padre did too.

About a month and a half ago, I saw a mature Mexican Tall with about 20- 25ft. of woody trunk a few miles northeast of Edinburg in the country outside of any heat island effect. I talked to the owner who planted it and it had obviously survived the 2011 freeze and probably the 2004 snowstorm too, but the crown was somewhat stunted when I saw it. I think do to this past winter and the winter before being really chilly and damp, but without any freezes. There are also a few mature Green Malayans at a used car dealership on the north side of Harlingen that are hanging on now. Here in Corpus, our biggest most beautiful one made it through this chilly damp winter and still has about 30% of the inner part of the crown nice and green. I don't know which variety it is, since I can't get close to it (up against the south side of a house on Ocean Dr. that is behind a gated fence). It has about 10ft. of woody trunk and occasionally has a small cluster of a few small coconuts on it.

Unfortunately, it looks like I have lost my 3 Green Malayans in my yard here in Flour Bluff. My coldest morning was 36.3F, but we had a total of about 15 nights in the upper 30's and many more nights in the low to mid 40's with highs of only in the 40's and low 50's with rain when we should have been having lows around 50F + and highs in the mid 60's to low 70's. I have decided if they really are dead (I'm going to wait to dig them up till about Aug. or Sept.) that I will replace them with Jamaican Talls of about 7-10ft. in overall height or Mexican Talls if I can get any. I have 3 baby Jamaicans from some people in Central Florida, and I am going to grow these up in pots for about a year to year and a half and then plant them.

John

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

By the way, Jonathon, I think all the ones in your photos from Matamoros are mature Mexican Talls, which are the most cold hardy variety in the Western Hemisphere being hardy down to about 26F when they are mature, which makes them the perfect variety for the South Texas Coast, since they come from the Gulf Coast of Mexico south of Matamoros. The Jamaican Tall is a close second in cold hardiness for the Western Hemisphere, being hardy to 27F when it is mature, but the Malayans are only hardy to about 28F or 29F and can't take the prolonged chilly weather in the winter like we sometimes have along the South Texas Coast as well as the Mexican and Jamaican Talls can.

[richtrav]

Would you consider this to be a Mexican tall?

[Coconutman]

Richtav,It could be a tall since talls tend to have a shorter rachis but since the bottom of the bole is missing in the photo,it's hard to tell.

[Mr. Coconut Palm]

Hi Richard,

It likely is a Mexican Tall since talls usually have a more sparse crown of leaves than the Malayan Dwarfs, but without seeing the base, it is hard to tell. Not all talls have a really swollen base, as I have seen at least a few mature Jamaican Talls in Florida that had very little if any swelling at the base, but it is the norm for the talls to have swelling at the base. Where was the photo taken?

John