Immokalee Florida And Tropical Palms

[PalmTreeDude]

So I remeber hearing someone say in a video that Immokalee does not have a good climate for more tender palms, I looked around on Google Maps on Streetview and saw these coconuts. Some look fine while others look horrible. I am kind of confused about this towns climate. Does it get a freeze every few years from being so far inland? What type of stuff would be the limit of what would survive there long term? 

Edited November 27, 2019 by PalmTreeDude

[redant]

We have had a good 8 years in a row of warm winters, a coconut can grow pretty tall in 8 years. Those will be killed of at some point in the future.

[PalmatierMeg]

Immokalee can be significantly hotter in summer and colder in winter than the coasts. Winters in the center of FL can run a half zone colder than along the shore, i.e., down to z9b. I agree with @redant that those neglected coconuts are on borrowed time.

[John hovancsek]

My mother lives very close by in a little place called ave maria.  She has licuala hybrid lipstick copernicia and pelagodoxia. It is inland but there are a lot of species that can grow 

[Xenon]

FWIW, I easily found several pre-2010 coconut palms.  Doesn't seem to be that cold. 
Here is a nice pair of coconuts, toggle the time stamp to see their transformation from 2007 to 2011 to 2019: Immokalee coconuts

I think most of your streetview images are from 2011 which would explain why they look a bit beat up. 
 

[GottmitAlex]

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

FWIW, I easily found several pre-2010 coconut palms.  Doesn't seem to be that cold. 
Here is a nice pair of coconuts, toggle the time stamp to see their transformation from 2007 to 2011 to 2019: Immokalee coconuts

I think most of your streetview images are from 2011 which would explain why they look a bit beat up. 
 

Impressive. They even have nuts.

 

 

[palmsOrl]

As mentioned, Imokalee has about the hottest summers in Florida, and averages warm winter days, but on the coldest nights probably gets colder than metro Orlando now most of the time.  I bet it is a high 9b or borderline 10a(probably the latter).

[ruskinPalms]

Coconuts are tricky little creatures. They hate frost but can take very short dips into the upper 20s. F. And they really do need consistent heat. My coconut was very minimally damaged during a 27F advective freeze here in Parrish, fl and is blowing up over the past couple of years. They generally seem to like Florida...soil, heat, insolation etc. Keep the frost off them and they reward you, even if they see upper 20s F once in awhile. 

[Xerarch]

4 hours ago, Xenon said:

FWIW, I easily found several pre-2010 coconut palms.  Doesn't seem to be that cold. 
Here is a nice pair of coconuts, toggle the time stamp to see their transformation from 2007 to 2011 to 2019: Immokalee coconuts

I think most of your streetview images are from 2011 which would explain why they look a bit beat up. 
 

How do you toggle the time stamp? I’ve always wanted to do that on street view, does it have to be on pc? Didn’t see the option on my phone. 

[Jeff985]

10 minutes ago, Xerarch said:

How do you toggle the time stamp? I’ve always wanted to do that on street view, does it have to be on pc? Didn’t see the option on my phone. 

Yeah. You have to be on a computer. 

[Xerarch]

Ok I see, I usually do street view in the phone or if on computer I use Google Earth and it has always frustrated me that the historical imagery button doesn’t work for street view. You can see the historical street views in Maps which I don’t normally use. I wish they would make that feature available across platforms. 

[kinzyjr]

For a data comparison of Immokalee vs. the metro areas along the I-4 corridor:

[RedRabbit]

47 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

For a data comparison of Immokalee vs. the metro areas along the I-4 corridor:

That looks broadly consistent with 10a. Where did you get that data from?

[kinzyjr]

4 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

That looks broadly consistent with 10a. Where did you get that data from?

Those screenshots are all from Weather.com (go to the Monthly data and scroll down for the chart).  I'm not certain where the weather station is for Immokalee.

[RedRabbit]

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

Those screenshots are all from Weather.com (go to the Monthly data and scroll down for the chart).  I'm not certain where the weather station is for Immokalee.

Ahh, thank you! 

[Steve in Florida]

2 hours ago, kinzyjr said:

Those screenshots are all from Weather.com (go to the Monthly data and scroll down for the chart).  I'm not certain where the weather station is for Immokalee.

Weather.com is not consistently reliable in that it will default to the nearest city with data available for the requested time period.

[palmsOrl]

4 hours ago, Steve in Florida said:

Weather.com is not consistently reliable in that it will default to the nearest city with data available for the requested time period.

Yes this can be an issue in some cases.

Re the data above, Imokalee and Lakeland are surprisingly extremely similar, despite a substantial latitude difference between the two locations.  All in all, the all-time record annual lows are within a couple degrees between all four sites.

The data posted for Orlando is for the International Airport.  I recall seeing the average January temps of the Executive Airport at 50F/72F.

[kinzyjr]

30 minutes ago, palmsOrl said:

Yes this can be an issue in some cases.

Re the data above, Imokalee and Lakeland are surprisingly extremely similar, despite a substantial latitude difference between the two locations.  All in all, the all-time record annual lows are within a couple degrees between all four sites.

The data posted for Orlando is for the International Airport.  I recall seeing the average January temps of the Executive Airport at 50F/72F.

Good points all the way around.  You're correct that the snip for Orlando was from the International Airport.

In getting back to the original post by @PalmTreeDude, my personal conclusion is that Immokalee is not any worse for certain tender palms than any of the other locations due to the similarities in overall climate.  Whether one considers the cities on the I-4 corridor a good place to grow tropical/tender palms is up to the individual grower and their tolerance for risk.  As @Xenon noted, there are pre-2010 coconuts indicating that the worst freeze in the last 30 years didn't result in a complete kill.  As pointed out by @redant and @PalmatierMeg, coconuts in climates like the four in my graphic are on borrowed time if we get a 1980s freeze.  But hey, if you don't mind taking out a "time loan"...

[kinzyjr]

Updated Normals:

Immokalee, FL

Lakeland, FL (KLAL)

Orlando, FL (KMCO)

Orlando, FL (KORL)

Tampa, FL (KTPA)

[SeanK]

Hmm, Either Collier is more affordable than I thought, or those are the most expensive single-wides in the US.

[fr8train]

On 11/27/2019 at 3:18 PM, Xenon said:

FWIW, I easily found several pre-2010 coconut palms.  Doesn't seem to be that cold. 
Here is a nice pair of coconuts, toggle the time stamp to see their transformation from 2007 to 2011 to 2019: Immokalee coconuts

I think most of your streetview images are from 2011 which would explain why they look a bit beat up. 
 

2023 and these are still alive and kicking