My New Home and Garden In Fort Lauderdale FL

[mthteh1916]

So I finally went and got house in a much warmer climate in Fort Lauderdale with quite a large garden. I have 7 coconut palms on the property with all producing fruit. The landscaper convinced me to have the coconuts taken off due to liability of them falling on heads and doing severe damage to passerby. Well, he went and even removed the flowers. They look so "bald" to me now.

Will the flowers come back and produce more coconuts? Anyone know how long I can expect before they bloom out again?

[warm0014]

That’s called a hurricane cut. Nice spot. 

[NOT A TA]

The "landscapers" usually just really want the nuts to sell or trade for other things.  They sell for .50 to a dollar each wholesale depending on the type & season. Here "Coconut procurement specialists"  come in two flavors. The honest ones drive around offering to buy the nuts that are almost mature or trim the old fronds off in exchange for the nuts.  The dishonest ones drive up, jump out and steal the nuts along the street (even in daytime) and if caught say something like "Oh, my bad, I thought these were city trees since they're by the road".  Honest ones usually have a van with ladders like the one in the pic below while the dishonest ones have a pickup and a pole saw.

The nuts fall almost straight down even when it's fairly windy so unless the tree is arched over a sidewalk they aren't much of a liability. It's not like a nut will blow 10 feet from a tree unless it's extremely tall or curved from the base.

New flowers form year round so they will start forming right away and it'll be almost a year before you have fruit you'd want to harvest for drinking. Mature fruit that would fall on it's own will take about a year.

Edited May 18, 2019 by NOT A TA

[waykoolplantz]

Maybe for safety in a public space...but never have heard of residential coconut bombs in 60+ years as a Florida native.

usually a ploy to get your nuts.  

I am in West Hollywood and I’m a few degrees warmer than Jeff Searle’s 10 miles further west...and you should be a degree or two warmer than me. I have a C Renda in the ground that survived the 2010 freeze.

probably the best landscaped residential yard on the east side of town is forum member TikiRick.  

Search for topics started by him...his photo skills can be seen in the color and textures that palms...crotons..and bromeliads live in full regalia.

patience required ..unless you have mucho pesos.

[kinzyjr]

@mthteh1916 Welcome to the Sunshine State from another former Keystone stater!  Nice spot you got there!

[Kailua_Krish]

Cute house! Lots of potential for fun landscaping!

[PalmatierMeg]

I have had fruiting coconuts for several years and give their seeds no thought. I've never heard, except in urban legends, of anyone actually getting conked by a coconut in my 26 years here. Anyone looking to get hit has to trespass on my property to achieve his goal. It's statistically more likely to be hit by a vehicle jumping a curb. I agree you were scammed by a local treecutter out to alarm a yankee newcomer (to a native Floridian anyone not born here is a yankee, including me). Your palms will recover and reseed. Be aware that coconut seeds take 2 years from flower to ripe fruit. Each palm will flower about once a year so you will end up with two crops in different stages. Most of the seeds will abort while still immature. I found that at most only 50% of ripe seeds produce viable offspring. My dwarf red spicata mother palm (RIP) produced only two viable seeds on her second crop before Hurricane Irma ended her fruiting career. Coconut palms waste more precious resources producing so few viable offspring than any palm I know

[NC_Palms]

Congrats on the move! Fort Lauderdale is a beautiful city. 

[GottmitAlex]

8 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

I have had fruiting coconuts for several years and give their seeds no thought. I've never heard, except in urban legends, of anyone actually getting conked by a coconut in my 26 years here. Anyone looking to get hit has to trespass on my property to achieve his goal. It's statistically more likely to be hit by a vehicle jumping a curb. I agree you were scammed by a local treecutter out to alarm a yankee newcomer (to a native Floridian anyone not born here is a yankee, including me). Your palms will recover and reseed. Be aware that coconut seeds take 2 years from flower to ripe fruit. Each palm will flower about once a year so you will end up with two crops in different stages. Most of the seeds will abort while still immature. I found that at most only 50% of ripe seeds produce viable offspring. My dwarf red spicata mother palm (RIP) produced only two viable seeds on her second crop before Hurricane Irma ended her fruiting career. Coconut palms waste more precious resources producing so few viable offspring than any palm I know

I agree with everything you mentioned.  I pondered about your last sentence and of course I agree: viable Coconut seeds are 10, 20 or 30 times larger than any viable seed that other palms produce (except, of course, the Loidicea).  Most palms produce more viable offspring than cocos.  True.(quantity)

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by GottmitAlex

[pj_orlando_z9b]

Congrats on the purchase. Welcome to Florida. Sounds like you have a landscaper already. Smart. I've been in Florida 6 years and the 12 month growing season takes too much time to maintain with my work schedule! I do a lot of detail work though and told my landscapers I'll do all the tree trimming. They hurricane cut everything...terrible. 

[Cluster]

That looks an awesome place to live, don't worry about the cocos they will fruit again soon, however I would avoid trimming them too much!

@PalmatierMeg

Do coconuts take two years from flower to fully ripe fruit in Cape Coral then? Interesting

Edited May 19, 2019 by Cluster

[PalmatierMeg]

3 hours ago, Cluster said:

That looks an awesome place to live, don't worry about the cocos they will fruit again soon, however I would avoid trimming them too much!

@PalmatierMeg

Do coconuts take two years from flower to fully ripe fruit in Cape Coral then? Interesting

My dwarf red spicata did because I closely monitored it. After the first flowering I had a yearly crop of ripe fruit below and the following year's crop in process higher up.