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transplanting a large adult fruiting coconut palm to California ?


trioderob

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I know someone who hauled a giant 20 feet of trunk jubaea chilensis to the North side of the Alps a few years ago, the thing is dead as a door nail and you can even see the dead carcass still standing on Google street view.

If someone did that, then I am sure someone rich enough already tried bringing cocos in full size. But you can almost count on it not being a palm nut because most palm nuts don't grow coconuts for the same reason palm nuts in California rarely grow washies. Now you just need to find that big palace in Bel Air or Beverly Hills that tried them to find out how it's working out.

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:hmm: 2 months ago I was at the SD zoo and they are trying to grow a coconut again its in the new reptile area. Not looking so grand but alive for now, Let them be your crash test dummy and if they succeed I say go for it, as long you can match there climate.

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One thing is for sure, talking about coconuts in California is sure a hot topic, so many hopefuls and naysayers alike. Looks how many posts in just one day.

Corpus Christi, TX, near salt water, zone 9b/10a! Except when it isn't and everything gets nuked.

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One thing is for sure, talking about coconuts in California is sure a hot topic, so many hopefuls and naysayers alike. Looks how many posts in just one day.

Any post that challenges the status qo seems to draw this kind of attention. I love triobobs posts and his ever changing avatars. Keeps things from getting dull on PalmTalk. Maybe soon we'll get a post on palm gardening while naked.

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yeah that is a ratty looking coconut but I've seen many queens and other palms just as ratty. Whats cool is that coconut palm is fruiting. Whats the story behind this palm? This is the first I've heard of it. I personally don't think that coconut or the new port one looks all that bad. I'd love to have them in my yard. Too bad I live in Northern California lol.

It is growing in basically a greenhouse. Fully enclosed pool area. Heated in winter by the sun and pool water. The fruit never stays on to make coconuts. He had a Cyrtostachys renda in there for years so that should tell you something.

Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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All I know is I got a trunking Bizzie today - yeaaa haaa

4 years from 3 foot to trunking aint bad for this area

sorry to derail my own thread............................ :bemused:

Edited by trioderob
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All I know is I got a trunking Bizzie today - yeaaa haaa

4 years from 3 foot to trunking aint bad for this area

sorry to derail my own thread............................ :bemused:

Congrats Rob.

Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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Coconuts just plain nuts. Maybe this helps.

Hong Kong when it finished building it's fabulous international airport Chek Lap Kok in 1998 decided it needed some spectacular type greenery to set it it off. So millions was spent and many more millions of $US importing by container ship hundreds and hundreds of mature coconut palms, spectacular monsters. The trip to Hong Kong wasn't particularly arduous for the palms as they came from nearby South East Asia, port to port just a few days at sea.

They looked lovely installed all over the place at the airport, avenues and car parks (not the brightest idea) they had so many you could see that they ran out of ideas as many ended up in military rows behind gas stations or as bedding in other equally pedestrian type areas.

First summer they looked lovely but sadly that was the only summer they would enjoy as they rapidly went into decline when the rains stopped. Furious activity was seen as they tried to revamp the declining palms but nothing doing and by winter or the cool season they were all but dead.

California is nowhere near as wet nor humid nor as truly tropical as is a Hong Kong summer and our winters are far warmer and more humid too and even dry, frost if it comes is a mere sprinkle on the very highest peaks and is known as "snow" and attracts a vast media frenzy. This happened in 1956 and again in 1974, 86 and 2010. Winters hover around 9-25%c humidity 60-80%.

Based on this I wouldn't say mature palms have a better chance at success, in fact quite a lot of healthy coconut palms do grow here in odd places there is one just down the road looks like someone did a bit of guerrilla planting its just beside the road in the unkempt scrub area another near a housing estate, another near the refuse collection point etc. These are sturdy robust examples most likely planted from those store bought ones in a little pot. In winter they look a bit brown tipped and shaggy but they grow thick trunks and nice big crowns.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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For the same amount of investment, I would try to get a Dypsis "white stem" instead...better chance to grow, better looking WHILE growing and would keep with the theme of a Zoo to visit things you can't see everywhere.

Zone 10a at best after 2007 AND 2013, on SW facing hill, 1 1/2 miles from coast in Oceanside, CA. 30-98 degrees, and 45-80deg. about 95% of the time.

"The great workman of nature is time."   ,  "Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience."

-George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon-

I do some experiments and learning in my garden with palms so you don't have to experience the pain! Look at my old threads to find various observations and tips!

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yeah that is a ratty looking coconut but I've seen many queens and other palms just as ratty. Whats cool is that coconut palm is fruiting. Whats the story behind this palm? This is the first I've heard of it. I personally don't think that coconut or the new port one looks all that bad. I'd love to have them in my yard. Too bad I live in Northern California lol.

I'm totally with you on this.

Trioderob raises an interesting question that no one has really addressed in this thread yet. Has anyone brought in full grown Cocos to a favorable microclimate in SoCal? If so, what happened? I seem to recall a story about the Hotel Del Coronado attempting to do this very thing. Mature/fruiting coconuts were shipped in many decades ago. They aren't there anymore...if the legend is true. But still doesn't answer why they aren't there. Death? Removal because they didn't look "good?" Were they planted in a good location? Were they cared for by a qualified palm freak?

So even though this may have been attempted, we know for sure they aren't there now. But even so, we can't claim this as an example of the exercise being hopeless, imho. We don't know enough about what happened and why.

...and if someone knows more, please do share. I'm sure it will be a fascinating discussion.

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Here we go again.

Not a lot of discussion about which variety would be the best to try. Long periods of cool soil and air impeding photosynthesis seems to be more of the challenge than ultimate lows. Of course they are denizens of the tropical shorelines but where are the highest altitude adapted coconuts? Where have they already been forced into growing in cooler locations for a few generations? Upcountry Hawaii? Highland Mexico? Colombia? Kenya? Western Ghats? Malaysian highlands? How about latitude? Maybe Bermuda or Hainan Island strains? The Incas used a system of agricultural terraces to adapt plants to higher and lower elevations with the microclimates selecting the most suitable genes. Maybe we have to start poking around Peru for the lost Incan city of coconuts.

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Zoo’s Horticulture Collections Manager is Mike Letzring. Give him a buzz. Let us know what he says - and be honest :)

Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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After Triodes first call, that's what Mike will do on subsequent calls.. with his phone "Letzring".. nothing? to soon..? :rolleyes:

  • Upvote 1

Zone 10a at best after 2007 AND 2013, on SW facing hill, 1 1/2 miles from coast in Oceanside, CA. 30-98 degrees, and 45-80deg. about 95% of the time.

"The great workman of nature is time."   ,  "Genius is nothing but a great aptitude for patience."

-George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon-

I do some experiments and learning in my garden with palms so you don't have to experience the pain! Look at my old threads to find various observations and tips!

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just to be clear- nobody on the palm forum has any solid info on a full grown fruiting coco being transported and planted into an ideal micro climate in S. Cal

true statement or falsehood ?

Edited by trioderob
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Just to speak on the cocos under glass they are a couple of very nice cocos in the moody gardens rainforest pyramid in Galveston Texas they keep that thing pegged as far as climate though

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yeah that is a ratty looking coconut but I've seen many queens and other palms just as ratty. Whats cool is that coconut palm is fruiting. Whats the story behind this palm? This is the first I've heard of it. I personally don't think that coconut or the new port one looks all that bad. I'd love to have them in my yard. Too bad I live in Northern California lol.

It is growing in basically a greenhouse. Fully enclosed pool area. Heated in winter by the sun and pool water. The fruit never stays on to make coconuts. He had a Cyrtostachys renda in there for years so that should tell you something.

I remember visiting Mardy's place in '75 and '76 when he had his Pigafetta in there too. Don't see too many any of those around either.

 

 

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just to be clear- nobody on the palm forum has any solid info on a full grown fruiting coco being transported and planted into an ideal micro climate in S. Cal

true statement or falsehood ?

Rob, I'm going to say with all this hemming an hawing, the answer is NO!

(but I think you should do it anyway!)

"Ph'nglui mglw'napalma Funkthulhu R'Lincolnea wgah'palm fhtagn"
"In his house at Lincoln, dread Funkthulhu plants palm trees."

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just to be clear- nobody on the palm forum has any solid info on a full grown fruiting coco being transported and planted into an ideal micro climate in S. Cal

true statement or falsehood ?

Rob, I'm going to say with all this hemming an hawing, the answer is NO!

(but I think you should do it anyway!)

well that's a real shame.

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Coconuts just plain nuts. Maybe this helps.Hong Kong when it finished building it's fabulous international airport Chek Lap Kok in 1998 decided it needed some spectacular type greenery to set it it off. So millions was spent and many more millions of $US importing by container ship hundreds and hundreds of mature coconut palms, spectacular monsters. The trip to Hong Kong wasn't particularly arduous for the palms as they came from nearby South East Asia, port to port just a few days at sea.They looked lovely installed all over the place at the airport, avenues and car parks (not the brightest idea) they had so many you could see that they ran out of ideas as many ended up in military rows behind gas stations or as bedding in other equally pedestrian type areas.First summer they looked lovely but sadly that was the only summer they would enjoy as they rapidly went into decline when the rains stopped. Furious activity was seen as they tried to revamp the declining palms but nothing doing and by winter or the cool season they were all but dead.California is nowhere near as wet nor humid nor as truly tropical as is a Hong Kong summer and our winters are far warmer and more humid too and even dry, frost if it comes is a mere sprinkle on the very highest peaks and is known as "snow" and attracts a vast media frenzy. This happened in 1956 and again in 1974, 86 and 2010. Winters hover around 9-25%c humidity 60-80%.Based on this I wouldn't say mature palms have a better chance at success, in fact quite a lot of healthy coconut palms do grow here in odd places there is one just down the road looks like someone did a bit of guerrilla planting its just beside the road in the unkempt scrub area another near a housing estate, another near the refuse collection point etc. These are sturdy robust examples most likely planted from those store bought ones in a little pot. In winter they look a bit brown tipped and shaggy but they grow thick trunks and nice big crowns.

What a waste! Why would anyone spend that kind of money on gazillions of mature palms and then have no plan to care for them duh.

Corpus Christi, TX, near salt water, zone 9b/10a! Except when it isn't and everything gets nuked.

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Coconuts just plain nuts. Maybe this helps.Hong Kong when it finished building it's fabulous international airport Chek Lap Kok in 1998 decided it needed some spectacular type greenery to set it it off. So millions was spent and many more millions of $US importing by container ship hundreds and hundreds of mature coconut palms, spectacular monsters. The trip to Hong Kong wasn't particularly arduous for the palms as they came from nearby South East Asia, port to port just a few days at sea.They looked lovely installed all over the place at the airport, avenues and car parks (not the brightest idea) they had so many you could see that they ran out of ideas as many ended up in military rows behind gas stations or as bedding in other equally pedestrian type areas.First summer they looked lovely but sadly that was the only summer they would enjoy as they rapidly went into decline when the rains stopped. Furious activity was seen as they tried to revamp the declining palms but nothing doing and by winter or the cool season they were all but dead.California is nowhere near as wet nor humid nor as truly tropical as is a Hong Kong summer and our winters are far warmer and more humid too and even dry, frost if it comes is a mere sprinkle on the very highest peaks and is known as "snow" and attracts a vast media frenzy. This happened in 1956 and again in 1974, 86 and 2010. Winters hover around 9-25%c humidity 60-80%.Based on this I wouldn't say mature palms have a better chance at success, in fact quite a lot of healthy coconut palms do grow here in odd places there is one just down the road looks like someone did a bit of guerrilla planting its just beside the road in the unkempt scrub area another near a housing estate, another near the refuse collection point etc. These are sturdy robust examples most likely planted from those store bought ones in a little pot. In winter they look a bit brown tipped and shaggy but they grow thick trunks and nice big crowns.

What a waste! Why would anyone spend that kind of money on gazillions of mature palms and then have no plan to care for them duh.

You would think coconuts would be fine in Hong Kong....they grow in Hanoi, Vietnam and Beihai, China just fine and share a similiar climate.

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For the same amount of investment, I would try to get a Dypsis "white stem" instead...better chance to grow, better looking WHILE growing and would keep with the theme of a Zoo to visit things you can't see everywhere.

Those Dypsis sp "white stem" we're they ever identified by anyone of note as being anything different to a D. robusta? Or are the experts rather disdainfully awaiting a flower if they must type of thing. I was reading the long sorry and rather unsavory saga a few days ago.

It makes one shudder to think this might be the fate of conservation for any of the remaining true treasures of Madagascar that are unfortunate enough to find their way into the black hole of capitalism.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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Here we go again.

Not a lot of discussion about which variety would be the best to try. Long periods of cool soil and air impeding photosynthesis seems to be more of the challenge than ultimate lows. Of course they are denizens of the tropical shorelines but where are the highest altitude adapted coconuts? Where have they already been forced into growing in cooler locations for a few generations? Upcountry Hawaii? Highland Mexico? Colombia? Kenya? Western Ghats? Malaysian highlands? How about latitude? Maybe Bermuda or Hainan Island strains? The Incas used a system of agricultural terraces to adapt plants to higher and lower elevations with the microclimates selecting the most suitable genes. Maybe we have to start poking around Peru for the lost Incan city of coconuts.

I have read, that even tough there are Cocos in Bermuda , they do not fruit. Is that true ?

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Coconuts just plain nuts. Maybe this helps.Hong Kong when it finished.........

What a waste! Why would anyone spend that kind of money on gazillions of mature palms and then have no plan to care for them duh.

You would think coconuts would be fine in Hong Kong....they grow in Hanoi, Vietnam and Beihai, China just fine and share a similiar climate.

Long story but in a very large nutshell it's as follows, (:

Horticulture in Hong Kong has historically and up until the present and foreseeable future been in a state of the doldrums as there has never been any significant interest in it. The poor fragrant harbor which is Hong Kong has been a cash cow for its citizens since its inception and nothing more. Refugees from Chinas cultural revolution and slaves for some lengthy colonial rule has meant survival and making ends meet has always taken precedence over culture of any kind including horticulture. The few true locals the Hakka planted rice in tiny paddies that are now left abandoned as interesting stone walls and caught fish scratching a very meager subsistence living, most if not all were assimilated into the city long long time ago.

Unlike Singapore which has a very strong thriving horticultural tradition with heavy influence from around it and its very diverse population Hong Kong under a heavy influence from Confucius is not even sure how to plant a tree properly and if its leaves dont look like money well is it even worth it. Disney Land where even more millions and trillions was spent on importing fully grown specimens of everything is also a sorry sad mess. They also imported experts from various countries with no knowledge of the local climate from America Australia and even the UK to do Disney and they had limited success but after care and random plant choice meant it looks a wreck a very few years later. A few of our highly predictable typhoons put many specimens to final rest. It's better using younger plants that can get their roots where they need to be etc.

Far as the coconuts are concerned they aren't an ideal choice for any number of reasons soil, climate, weather patterns but actually just the climate is not ideal for Cocos nucifera. It's true they don't like typhoons either but if you look at Hong Kongs latitude it's out of the zone, where as the small Chinese Island of Hainan not very far from here is perfect as is the Philippines one hours flight away.

They don't thrive. They will thrive in only very select micro climates with lots of acclimatization, but to import thousands of mature specimens expecting any measure of success never mind instant success is pure lack of research even basic research and an incredible waste of tax payers money, literally thrown down the toilet, but hey some guy got rich and thats all that counts here. You see it at the plant market everyday plants are imported from Europe from places like the Netherlands as garden plants, cold hardy plants that die at even the first smell of our tropical summer.

I've gardened here in Hong Kong now for twelve years and its a tricky climate a very tricky climate it's both warm tropical and cool subtropical with typhoons bone dry winters and unbelievable deluges......but there are and must be many more thousands of palm species that would absolutely thrive, coconuts are just not one of them.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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yeah that is a ratty looking coconut but I've seen many queens and other palms just as ratty. Whats cool is that coconut palm is fruiting. Whats the story behind this palm? This is the first I've heard of it. I personally don't think that coconut or the new port one looks all that bad. I'd love to have them in my yard. Too bad I live in Northern California lol.

It is growing in basically a greenhouse. Fully enclosed pool area. Heated in winter by the sun and pool water. The fruit never stays on to make coconuts. He had a Cyrtostachys renda in there for years so that should tell you something.

Thats rather interesting. What zone is the area outside? If its truely heated by just the sun and radiated heat it gives me an idea. Yes I'm nuts, but is there any way something like that could work unheated for the most part in the central valley too? I have a potted coconut plam that I take indoors during winter. One day its gonna get to big for inside and I don't want to get rid of it. So I figure its best chance is to be planted near a building facing south/ wedged between two southern walls and near surfaces like cement or rocks that would radiate heat at night. The remaining sides and top would then be enclosed like a crude green house during cooler weather and winter only. The rest of the year when it warms up it would be exposed to the valley's hot weather which they grow just fine in. It might still be too cool with all the cloudy days and much cooler nights especially frosty ones. I don't expect it to actually work just optimistic it might. During sunny days it would be more than warm enough for a coconut. I've recorded 70f-80f temps during sunny days in my own small green house. And I've seen microclimates outside keep bananas from freezing even on some really cold nights so at the least I susspect the enclosure to not freeze or freeze easily. And hopefully there is enough warmth being radiated that night time temps could be kept up much warmer than outside.if I'm right the issue then becomes will it be warm enough still or will it still be too cool and prolong the eventual slow death.

Anyway sorry for getting off topic. But back on topic, if you had a mature coconut palm brought into CA and just had to find a spot to plant it where would you plant it? Near the coast? In the desert?

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Hong Kong sounds a lot like Florida then climate wise. Maybe east central if coconuts don't always thrive there, because they do fine in South Fl...

Keith 

Palmetto, Florida (10a) and Tampa, Florida (9b/10a)

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I was thinking the same thing Keith. The climate is similar to Central Florida, although the wet months are much wetter and the dry months somewhat drier there. Also, the extreme cold that Central FL has periodically experienced does not affect Hong Kong to the same degree. The lowest temperature on record there is 32F, which (as a quick overnight low) would not kill a Coconut. Also, Cocos are some of the most hurricane/typhoon tolerant arborescent plants (technically not a tree) out there. If any such plant would by suitable to a warm tropical cyclone prone area, a Cocos is it.

Looking at Hong Kong average temps, I would expect Cocos to fair about the same as in Bermuda, as long as the plants were irrigated during the driest months. I would expect that few would set fruit.

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just to be clear- nobody on the palm forum has any solid info on a full grown fruiting coco being transported and planted into an ideal micro climate in S. Cal

true statement or falsehood ?

Rob, I'm going to say with all this hemming an hawing, the answer is NO!

(but I think you should do it anyway!)

well that's a real shame.

I don't think so. Yea, i would buy one from the hardware store but for novelty purposes only. If I got it to somehow grow I don't know if I'd even plant it knowing its going to look like crap most of the time. I get the whole idea of having one of the few coconuts growing in socal but there's so many palms that would thrive in our climate that a coconut isn't even on the list of things to try. Even if i'm really trying to push zones I can thing of many species I rather grow.

Even in the perfect socal microclimate I think a full grown one still wouldn't like it here.

It's like the Florida guys trying to grow a Rhopalostylis

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just to be clear- nobody on the palm forum has any solid info on a full grown fruiting coco being transported and planted into an ideal micro climate in S. Cal

true statement or falsehood ?

Rob, I'm going to say with all this hemming an hawing, the answer is NO!

(but I think you should do it anyway!)

well that's a real shame.

I don't think so. Yea, i would buy one from the hardware store but for novelty purposes only. If I got it to somehow grow I don't know if I'd even plant it knowing its going to look like crap most of the time. I get the whole idea of having one of the few coconuts growing in socal but there's so many palms that would thrive in our climate that a coconut isn't even on the list of things to try. Even if i'm really trying to push zones I can thing of many species I rather grow.

Even in the perfect socal microclimate I think a full grown one still wouldn't like it here.

It's like the Florida guys trying to grow a Rhopalostylis

You could grow one in a pot. No problem at all. I got one last year. It's pumping out new leaves like crazy. Slowed to nil during winter, even though I brought it inside. It's fun, a nice diversion and a living reminder of the tropics. Got for it!
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Yes HK's climate is exactly like parts of Florida, it's like the extreme Southern parts of Florida for more than three quarters of the year and then like the area just before you hit the Keys the area or transition zone between the extreme South and East. We never get frost or anything much under 10%c for longer than a few days at a time. Marginal tropicals will do well like Wodyetia but fully tropicals like the good old Cyrtostachys renda won't at all. Palm beach to maybe just up to Miami, though coconuts grow in Miami they aren't spectacular.

Im not sure coconuts transplant so very well, even in the tropics. This is ancedotal but The hotel the Peninsula where I always stay in Bangkok has battled with mature palms around its swimming pool for the longest time, they have loads of cash to spend but they just dont take off. They start leaning badly and growing uneven thickness trunks. Once they lean badly and try and correct themselves they look awkward and unnatural a bit kinky, despite years of support rigs in the begining. They after a number of attempts at mature ones put in younger ones just a meter trunk or so and these are looking very very well and robust and have taken off they get bigger in all aspects every time I see them.

A well grown coconut palm is truly incredible they can have monster canopies and be extremely tall, some of the older ones in Bangkok are simply incredible far bigger than the ones on the coast in sand, some of truly epic proportions.

Cerdic

Non omnis moriar (Horace)

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Cedric, you are right about the Coconuts in Miami (and the rest of coastal S. Florida in general). There are some very nice looking specimens here, but they rarely look as magnificent and perfectly grown as those in wetter, tropical coastal areas.

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How about bringing in a fruiting specimen and planting it close to the the Newport beach coconut?

We Know that that Micro Climate can grow abit slowly - coconuts.

Or.....If the Newport beach coconut is some sort of special variety. It should be able to cloned via tissue Culture from a root tip.

Most Jr College Botany depts. might get a kick out of cloning some thing so rare.

Hmmm? I could grow a piece of California palm history as a house plant!

Modesto, CA USDA 9b

July/August average 95f/63f

Dec/Jan average 55f/39f

Average lowest winter temp 27f

Record low temp 18f

Record high temp 113f

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Depending on the micro climate I think that you can grow coconuts in California. I actually have warmer winter lows here in Escondido, than my parents in Leucadia. I tried mangoes, and jackfruit in Leucadia -- which died during the winter. I am not having any troubles with the mangoes here, and I am even growing plants that are supposed to be too tropical for this area -- like red ginger. Yes it will grow and flower here. The problem is that -- like coconuts -- it also burns in the dry inland sun and starts looking pretty ratty.

It seems that the people who succeed with coconuts outside are the ones who are growing them close to pavement -- and the pavement gives warmth. Like Paul Kelso in El Cajon who grew his right next to his asphalt driveway. Or like the Newport coconut that is growing right next to a building and a sidewalk. It appears that coconuts like heat. But they also burn and sort of look ratty in our dry climate. Would it help to shade them?? Is a burnt looking palm even worth growing? Maybe if you are going them for coconuts? I doubt there is enough heat along the coast for coconuts to set. They are like mangoes. The only commercial mangoes being grown in California are being grown out in the desert near Palm Springs. And those are "Kiett" mangoes. The other varieties don't produce enough to make them worth the effort or cost.

Edited by rprimbs
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Depending on the micro climate I think that you can grow coconuts in California. I actually have warmer winter lows here in Escondido, than my parents in Leucadia. I tried mangoes, and jackfruit in Leucadia -- which died during the winter. I am not having any troubles with the mangoes here, and I am even growing plants that are supposed to be too tropical for this area -- like red ginger. Yes it will grow and flower here. The problem is that -- like coconuts -- it also burns in the dry inland sun and starts looking pretty ratty.

It seems that the people who succeed with coconuts outside are the ones who are growing them close to pavement -- and the pavement gives warmth. Like Paul Kelso in El Cajon who grew his right next to his asphalt driveway. Or like the Newport coconut that is growing right next to a building and a sidewalk. It appears that coconuts like heat. But they also burn and sort of look ratty in our dry climate. Would it help to shade them?? Is a burnt looking palm even worth growing? Maybe if you are going them for coconuts? I doubt there is enough heat along the coast for coconuts to set. They are like mangoes. The only commercial mangoes being grown in California are being grown out in the desert near Palm Springs. And those are "Kiett" mangoes. The other varieties don't produce enough to make them worth the effort or cost.

Richard, You do know that there is a big difference in temperature requirements in Coconuts and Mangoes.

Having grown a Keitt mango seeding to maturity and fruit here in the armpit of CA... Mooodestoo.

Mangoes aren't really tropical in their needs. They just need protection from sub freezing weather. My Keitt Mango blossomed and set fruit every year... at a time when soil temp was a bone chilling 46f-48f degrees!

My coconut experiment... Well, the roots rotted at soil temp about 60f.

Jeff

Modesto, CA USDA 9b

July/August average 95f/63f

Dec/Jan average 55f/39f

Average lowest winter temp 27f

Record low temp 18f

Record high temp 113f

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Not sure if it would be the same in SoCal as is it is here for me in the Central Valley since our climates are different, but my potted coconut palms tend to look and do best when given some shade. They also tend to look good with only a little tip burn at times. So i don't see why it couldn't help in SoCal as well.

Edited by US_Marine
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a small sprout might not react the same as a large fruiting palm..

after all - lots of small Jubs die here -but when larger- they are tough as heck.

sounds like nobody knows for sure.

would be interesting what an old time nurseryman like Jerry at RSN would say about it.

Gary could you ask him ?

Edited by trioderob
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All I know is I got a trunking Bizzie today - yeaaa haaa

4 years from 3 foot to trunking aint bad for this area

sorry to derail my own thread............................ :bemused:

I don't believe you. I'm calling you out on this one. If it was really 3 feet tall, and you planted it 4 years ago, there's no way you have a trunking (clear trunk) Bizzie unless you ripped the shit out of those leaf bases and it's a measley 8" in diameter. Post a pic.

Matt Bradford

"Manambe Lavaka"

Spring Valley, CA (8.5 miles inland from San Diego Bay)

10B on the hill (635 ft. elevation)

9B in the canyon (520 ft. elevation)

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a small sprout might not react the same as a large fruiting palm..

after all - lots of small Jubs die here -but when larger- they are tough as heck.

sounds like nobody knows for sure.

would be interesting what an old time nurseryman like Jerry at RSN would say about it.

Gary could you ask him ?

Sadly, Jerry Hunter passed away in September last year. See the Memorials section.

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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a small sprout might not react the same as a large fruiting palm..

after all - lots of small Jubs die here -but when larger- they are tough as heck.

sounds like nobody knows for sure.

would be interesting what an old time nurseryman like Jerry at RSN would say about it.

Gary could you ask him ?

Jerry is dead unfortunately. And knowing him I could tell you that you wouldn't like what he would say or how he would tell you :)

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Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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Depending on the micro climate I think that you can grow coconuts in California. I actually have warmer winter lows here in Escondido, than my parents in Leucadia. I tried mangoes, and jackfruit in Leucadia -- which died during the winter. I am not having any troubles with the mangoes here, and I am even growing plants that are supposed to be too tropical for this area -- like red ginger. Yes it will grow and flower here. The problem is that -- like coconuts -- it also burns in the dry inland sun and starts looking pretty ratty.

It seems that the people who succeed with coconuts outside are the ones who are growing them close to pavement -- and the pavement gives warmth. Like Paul Kelso in El Cajon who grew his right next to his asphalt driveway. Or like the Newport coconut that is growing right next to a building and a sidewalk. It appears that coconuts like heat. But they also burn and sort of look ratty in our dry climate. Would it help to shade them?? Is a burnt looking palm even worth growing? Maybe if you are going them for coconuts? I doubt there is enough heat along the coast for coconuts to set. They are like mangoes. The only commercial mangoes being grown in California are being grown out in the desert near Palm Springs. And those are "Kiett" mangoes. The other varieties don't produce enough to make them worth the effort or cost.

Richard, You do know that there is a big difference in temperature requirements in Coconuts and Mangoes.

Having grown a Keitt mango seeding to maturity and fruit here in the armpit of CA... Mooodestoo.

Mangoes aren't really tropical in their needs. They just need protection from sub freezing weather. My Keitt Mango blossomed and set fruit every year... at a time when soil temp was a bone chilling 46f-48f degrees!

My coconut experiment... Well, the roots rotted at soil temp about 60f.

Jeff

I could be wrong but I don't think that Mangoes fruit as well on the coast as they do inland with more heat. It was Paul Thompson who first suggested this. I don't think that coconuts are going to fruit on the coast.

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Depending on the micro climate I think that you can grow coconuts in California. I actually have warmer winter lows here in Escondido, than my parents in Leucadia. I tried mangoes, and jackfruit in Leucadia -- which died during the winter. I am not having any troubles with the mangoes here, and I am even growing plants that are supposed to be too tropical for this area -- like red ginger. Yes it will grow and flower here. The problem is that -- like coconuts -- it also burns in the dry inland sun and starts looking pretty ratty.

It seems that the people who succeed with coconuts outside are the ones who are growing them close to pavement -- and the pavement gives warmth. Like Paul Kelso in El Cajon who grew his right next to his asphalt driveway. Or like the Newport coconut that is growing right next to a building and a sidewalk. It appears that coconuts like heat. But they also burn and sort of look ratty in our dry climate. Would it help to shade them?? Is a burnt looking palm even worth growing? Maybe if you are going them for coconuts? I doubt there is enough heat along the coast for coconuts to set. They are like mangoes. The only commercial mangoes being grown in California are being grown out in the desert near Palm Springs. And those are "Kiett" mangoes. The other varieties don't produce enough to make them worth the effort or cost.

Richard, You do know that there is a big difference in temperature requirements in Coconuts and Mangoes.

Having grown a Keitt mango seeding to maturity and fruit here in the armpit of CA... Mooodestoo.

Mangoes aren't really tropical in their needs. They just need protection from sub freezing weather. My Keitt Mango blossomed and set fruit every year... at a time when soil temp was a bone chilling 46f-48f degrees!

My coconut experiment... Well, the roots rotted at soil temp about 60f.

Jeff

I could be wrong but I don't think that Mangoes fruit as well on the coast as they do inland with more heat. It was Paul Thompson who first suggested this. I don't think that coconuts are going to fruit on the coast.

I know nothing about growing mangoes or the different varieties but 2 of my neighbors have plants that produce a bunch of mangoes, although smaller than what I see at the market

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