@GottmitAlex, you need to get yourself a serious hacienda, with mucho hectares!

As a sidenote, "Sauron's helmet" is opening up. I just wanted to say this is leaf no. 17. All completely pinnate.

One year and a half.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 20188 yr by GottmitAlex

Alex, they are definitely all pinnate now. Yesterday, just for the heck of it, I marked the spear on my small green Malayan dwarf (grown from a nut from my mother coconut palm) at around 5 p.m. This morning around 8:30 I checked the mark, and it had moved about one inch. That movement was just under 15 hours. I will check it tomorrow morning to see how much farther the mark as moved.

That is astonishing, Walt! Would you mind mind giving us a complete picture of your green Malayan beauty? 

 

 

3 hours ago, Walt said:

Alex, they are definitely all pinnate now. Yesterday, just for the heck of it, I marked the spear on my small green Malayan dwarf (grown from a nut from my mother coconut palm) at around 5 p.m. This morning around 8:30 I checked the mark, and it had moved about one inch. That movement was just under 15 hours. I will check it tomorrow morning to see how much farther the mark as moved.

funny, i did the same this weekend.  I got about 1" in 20 hours. 

Hows the dragon fruit growing lol

9 hours ago, veeman55 said:

Hows the dragon fruit growing lol

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/57020-after-a-year-the-first-dragon-fruit-bud-has-appeared/

Nice fruit and flowers

Well, winter has passed. As we all know it arrived late. Hitting us hard with a cool and very wet climate for February. 

I would like to show some pics of the status of the planted palms. I just stress, the yellowing/red tips on my favorite coco (the golden Malayan Dwarf. Far right) is not due to winter, but to a red mite infestation last fall. The critters have been dealt with, however, they left destruction in their wake.

 

Without further ado. Here are the pics:

From right to left:

Golden malayan dwarf, planted as a one strap seedling Aug/2016.

Green Pacific tall planted March 2017. 

5 year old B.alfredii, is a midget compared to the cocos...  LoL

Then another green pacific tall (sibling of the first one)

Then store-bought dehusked coco from Jalisco/Mexico. It sprouted in Nov 2016, planted April 2017 and the beauty turned out to be a golden tall.

Last but not least the red Tahiti dwarf/Rangoroa/Haari papua coco. There is a thread about a handful of us posters who bought these online at more or less the same time. 

Expecting some growth this upcoming season. 

Regards!

I forgot to mention: This winter, I did not employ any tarps above the two green Pacific  talls and the alfie (they're all together. Alfie is between 'em). I can say, in my 3 year limited-experience, that the green pacifics are hardier than the golden malayan dwarf and the red Tahiti dwarf. However, I cannot say the same about the Jalisco golden tall. It looks as if it didnt see winter. Time will tell.  

 Here's a night time shot of the ajalisco (Mexican golden pacific tall)

 

7 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

I forgot to mention: This winter, I did not employ any tarps above the two green Pacific  talls and the alfie (they're all together. Alfie is between 'em). I can say, in my 3 year limited-experience, that the green pacifics are hardier than the golden malayan dwarf and the red Tahiti dwarf. However, I cannot say the same about the Jalisco golden tall. It looks as if it didnt see winter. Time will tell.  

Since you can grow outdoors coconuts, you don't need any tarp for your B alfredii (I take Alfie for this sp). Alfredii is a lot hardier than any coconut. I can grow alfredii outdoors without cover during winter, except when snow cover is anticipated but no coconut.

Edited March 19, 20197 yr by Phoenikakias

8 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Since you can grow outdoors coconuts, you don't need any tarp for your B alfredii (I take Alfie for this sp). Alfredii is a lot hardier than any coconut. I can grow alfredii outdoors without cover during winter, except when snow cover is anticipated but no coconut.

Exactly. As I mentioned I do not use tapes over the alfie nor the two green pacifics which flank it. 

Well, I'm happy your palms made it (and very well, I might add) through this winter. I heard you had one of the coolest February since records have been kept. 

On the other hand, I experienced the mildest winter since the first winter ('97-'98 El Nino) I moved here. That being said, my green Malayan dwarf suffered chilling damage early on in the winter, where all the fronds from the 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock position got browned severely, and mostly killed.  My garden experienced no frost this winter. Further, we got more rain than normal, so everything is pretty much green. Today, though, is a rotten day -- cold and rainy. Right now it's about 60 degrees at 11:35 a.m.

One thing about your coconut palms -- the taller they grow the more direct sun they are going to get. I think once they get more full sun their growth rate will pick up. In any event, more sun is a good thing.

Thanks Walt! Sorry to hear about your coco. What do you attribute the frond burn to if you had no frost? Was it constantly cool (for days)?

What were your lows early winter?

 

Man, we're blessed.   gute Nacht everyone!

11 hours ago, Walt said:

Well, I'm happy your palms made it (and very well, I might add) through this winter. I heard you had one of the coolest February since records have been kept. 

On the other hand, I experienced the mildest winter since the first winter ('97-'98 El Nino) I moved here. That being said, my green Malayan dwarf suffered chilling damage early on in the winter, where all the fronds from the 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock position got browned severely, and mostly killed.  My garden experienced no frost this winter. Further, we got more rain than normal, so everything is pretty much green. Today, though, is a rotten day -- cold and rainy. Right now it's about 60 degrees at 11:35 a.m.

One thing about your coconut palms -- the taller they grow the more direct sun they are going to get. I think once they get more full sun their growth rate will pick up. In any event, more sun is a good thing.

Surprised to hear that. Still doesn't sound bad. I had no damage this winter thankfully. 

22 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

Thanks Walt! Sorry to hear about your coco. What do you attribute the frond burn to if you had no frost? Was it constantly cool (for days)?

What were your lows early winter?

 

According to U. of Florida literature,  when a tropical palm is used to very warm temperatures, then a cold front (not a freeze, but temps in the 40sF) comes through -- the palm gets what the U. of Florida calls "chilling" damage, and this causes the leaves to die (mine died over a period of 7-10 days). This seems to happen each winter with my coconut palm. Yet, my small green Malayan dwarf I planted last spring (grown from a nut from my mother palm) got no damage at all. The official low at a U. of Florida weather station located about 8 miles from me recorded a low of 38.77 degrees on January 21st. . For February, there was only one night in the 40s (47.46 F on the 14th).

I ran temperature reports for both January and February 2019 for the Sebring FAWN location, at a 2 meter elevation.

https://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/data/reports/

 

13 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Surprised to hear that. Still doesn't sound bad. I had no damage this winter thankfully. 

I drove around my environs, and I saw other coconut palms with similar damage, but others with no damage.  All last year my coconut palm never put out a flower spike. However, it's pushing a spike out now, so I hope to get some ripe coconuts by this winter.

 

@Walt & @pj_orlando_z9b

My two Jamaican Talls are approximately 12 feet from each other.  One had some browning on each of the fronds including the spear.  The other went through with next to no damage other than a few brown leaf tips.

@GottmitAlex

Your palms look wonderful.  Keep up the nice work and thank you for the documentation of what you are doing to produce the results.

23 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

Man, we're blessed.   gute Nacht everyone!

Wol

Wolfing down some Mexican Mother in Law Stew . . . .

From this:

 

To this in two and a half years:

 

17 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

From this:

 

To this in two and a half years:

 

Great work Alex

Looks great Alex, well done mate!

A pic from a higher elevation: ladder

It's a nice and sunny 75f day

 

 

Edited April 3, 20197 yr by GottmitAlex

This is amazing. I am incredibly jealous. Thanks for sharing! 

They're going to get big this summer! 

24 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

They're going to get big this summer! 

I'm counting on it!

They're growing...

 

They look great Alex! I've just walked in from fertilizing my coconut palms, our weather is beginning to cool down now - still warm but you can feel the change.

1 hour ago, sandgroper said:

They look great Alex! I've just walked in from fertilizing my coconut palms, our weather is beginning to cool down now - still warm but you can feel the change.

Thank you! I know the feeling. You can feel the underlying temp while driving once you roll down the window and stick your hand out.

Edited April 13, 20197 yr by GottmitAlex

 Looking forward to some more photos of your coconut collection once the summertime growth is in full swing.

On 8/29/2017 at 2:18 PM, GottmitAlex said:

 

^^2016^^

^^Originally planted horizontally on native soil. July 27th 2016.^^   

^^Replaced its plot with pure sand and planted it in a vertical manner (yes, a tad bit too close to the fence) August 29th 2016. One year ago to this day.

From this, to this is 2.5 years.

 

Edited April 17, 20197 yr by GottmitAlex

On 3/20/2019 at 12:47 PM, Walt said:

According to U. of Florida literature,  when a tropical palm is used to very warm temperatures, then a cold front (not a freeze, but temps in the 40sF) comes through -- the palm gets what the U. of Florida calls "chilling" damage, and this causes the leaves to die (mine died over a period of 7-10 days). This seems to happen each winter with my coconut palm. Yet, my small green Malayan dwarf I planted last spring (grown from a nut from my mother palm) got no damage at all. The official low at a U. of Florida weather station located about 8 miles from me recorded a low of 38.77 degrees on January 21st. . For February, there was only one night in the 40s (47.46 F on the 14th).

I ran temperature reports for both January and February 2019 for the Sebring FAWN location, at a 2 meter elevation.

https://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/data/reports/

 

It’s interesting, because I was worried about my two potted Jamaican tall coconut seedlings when that front came through early last month.  We ended up having to nights in the low 40s after an extended period of very warm temperatures.   The two palms came through completely unblemished.  They are potted in large pots with a high percentage of sand so they are a bit heavy to move, unless we would have expected a frost or freeze.

9 hours ago, palmsOrl said:

It’s interesting, because I was worried about my two potted Jamaican tall coconut seedlings when that front came through early last month.  We ended up having to nights in the low 40s after an extended period of very warm temperatures.   The two palms came through completely unblemished.  They are potted in large pots with a high percentage of sand so they are a bit heavy to move, unless we would have expected a frost or freeze.

That's good. I have a small developing coconut (stem still in nut) that I planted last summer. All the leaves except one were damaged. I don't recall any frost, and the official low was 39 degrees on our coldest night in January. So far, this little palm has not started to produce a new spear leaf. On another note, my green Malayan dwarf that has been fruiting for years never put out even one new spathe last year. But two spaths have started this year, with the first one getting ready to open and flower.

54 minutes ago, Walt said:

That's good. I have a small developing coconut (stem still in nut) that I planted last summer. All the leaves except one were damaged. I don't recall any frost, and the official low was 39 degrees on our coldest night in January. So far, this little palm has not started to produce a new spear leaf. On another note, my green Malayan dwarf that has been fruiting for years never put out even one new spathe last year. But two spaths have started this year, with the first one getting ready to open and flower.

Walt, would you mind posting a photo of the two spaths just so I know what to start looking for if mine decides to flower? I never paid any attention to flowering coconuts when I was in the north of our state but now that I'm growing my own coconut I'm very interested in seeing what to look for.

10 hours ago, sandgroper said:

Walt, would you mind posting a photo of the two spaths just so I know what to start looking for if mine decides to flower? I never paid any attention to flowering coconuts when I was in the north of our state but now that I'm growing my own coconut I'm very interested in seeing what to look for.

Okay, I will post back in a few hours after I take some photos.

Okay, I took the below photos this morning (4-19-19). The biggest spathe emerged on the south side of the palm. The newer, smaller spathe emerged on the north side of the palm. I expect at least several more spathes as spring, then summer, passes.

Thanks very much mate, appreciate you doing that, I now know what to be on the lookout for. Cheers!