Cocos nucifera (Coconut) in Malta

[Maltese coconut project]

I see. Next winter I will put the smaller specimens in a trolley and only take them out on sunshine hours and put them back inside at night 

[Tomasz]

Fingers crossed🤞🏻

[Aleitalyyy]

they say that coconuts are more resistant to the cold

mypan and panama tall

It's not easy to find these plants though.. only shipped from Florida at prohibitive prices.... I don't know which supermarket can have coconut fruit coming from this palm cultivar...

now in the supermarket you can find all nuts coming from the ivory coast... including lidl...

[Aleitalyyy]

the maypan is a hybrid between tall panama and malayan dwarf... it is the most cold-resistant coconut palm... this is reported by studies conducted in Florida! I read that fruits from Jamaica are maypan...

In Europe I have never seen coconuts labeled with Jamaican origin

[Maltese coconut project]

I can't trwce

[Maltese coconut project]

I can't trace which cultivar are mine since they are random but all I know is that they are from India. Also from the two main ancient origins, the Indian ones and their descendants are somewhat more cool tolerant than the south Pacific ones 

[Tomasz]

You can actually find this type of coconut in the USA. Malta Post offers a SendOn service, enabling you to make a purchase in the USA, have it shipped to their US address post hub, and then have it forwarded to you at a lower cost.

https://www.maltapost.com/sendon

[Tomasz]

The cost of shipping is around €10 from US to Malta. I use sendOn when buying things which are unavailable in Malta

[Maltese coconut project]

They also say that Jamaican person tall is cool resistant.. But Jamaican talls are descendants of Indian talls so... 

[Tomasz]

Not really, it could took thousands years of natural selection until they prepared to be more cool resistant

Edited September 17, 2023 by Tomasz

[Maltese coconut project]

Or maybe some specimens are already slightly more resistant and we would just need to germinate as much as we can to discover them. The specimen that survived winter 2022-2023 was less then 60cm, it was the record smallest one surviving winter outdoors here in Malta from my experiments since 2019 and considering that winter 2022-2023 was really wet between 16th January to 13th February almost raining non stop every day 

 

[Aleitalyyy]

you're trying lampedusa with 3 coconut plants in the ground... here's 1! I took the photos from the tropical group on Facebook... I'm happy that it's finally being tested in the soil in Lampedusa!

[Maltese coconut project]

Very similar to Maltese climate there. Probably only slightly warmer since a little bit more to the south 

Edited September 28, 2023 by Maltese coconut project

[Aleitalyyy]

the only possibility of coconut in marginal Mediterranean climates is to be planted in the ground and possibly covered in the first years of life, until the roots sink into the ground and create a large trunk...

in pots they are condemned to death... winter freezes the roots and the humidity remains...

fingers crossed for lampedusa...unfortunately they are using dutch palms and that's not good...

[Maltese coconut project]

We haven't seen if the high nitrate low ammonia low urea fertilizer in combination with high potassium, calcium, manganese, Zinc, silica, molybdenum etc increases winter resistance.  Also this time the small ones I will put in a trolley and put inside after sunset 

[Palermogreen]

11 hours ago, Aleitalyyy said:

fingers crossed for lampedusa...unfortunately they are using dutch palms and that's not good...

Mine was a dutch coconut: it survived the winter but wasn't able to restart to vegetate when the hot season started again.  

[Aleitalyyy]

On 9/30/2023 at 2:23 PM, Maltese coconut project said:

We haven't seen if the high nitrate low ammonia low urea fertilizer in combination with high potassium, calcium, manganese, Zinc, silica, molybdenum etc increases winter resistance.  Also this time the small ones I will put in a trolley and put inside after sunset 

well... with great surprise and amazement at the news and immense pleasure, another user of the tropical group on FB posted a photo of her cocos in the open ground which has already survived a winter... this one is found on the island of Pantelleria...

jonathan coconut in borderline climates has possibilities only planted in the ground... I already told you, and not just me... it's useless to spend too much time fixing fertilizers...

[Palermogreen]

29 minutes ago, Aleitalyyy said:

well... with great surprise and amazement at the news and immense pleasure, another user of the tropical group on FB posted a photo of her cocos in the open ground which has already survived a winter... this one is found on the island of Pantelleria...

jonathan coconut in borderline climates has possibilities only planted in the ground... I already told you, and not just me... it's useless to spend too much time fixing fertilizers...

The first Cocos growing outside in the ground in Italy! Wow...

 

[Maltese coconut project]

The growth seems like greenhouse growth in length. It would be great to see summer 2024 update of the same specimen 

[Maltese coconut project]

Hello everyone.. It's been a while since I last updated regarding the coconut experiments. This coconut survived last winter outdoors and in my experiments it was the record smallest one that survived our winter outdoors. The smaller specimens shown in the photos have never been wintering outdoors. As you can see, smaller ones are too vulnerable and Mediterranean winter survival rates are really low. Therefore next winter I intend to use the green trolley to take them out on sunny days and bring them back in at night or during rainy days 

[Maltese coconut project]

Cocos nucifera in Malta update. There where some episodes of heavy rain that cooled November for a while in Malta. Meanwhile before the rainy days during the beginning of November I removed plant pot bottom trays for most of the plants except for cool loving plants.  I am still using some liquid fertilizer but literally a very tiny amount, the bare minimum, just a tiny ring around the crown of the plants. On non fertiliser days I check soil moisture with my finger daily at noon. If still some moisture present I don't water. The coconut in the big pot is the only specimen surviving last winter with almost daily rain from 26th January to 13th February. The smaller specimens I take out during sunshine hours and bring inside at night. Also I don't bring them out during rainy days.. They're still too small 

[Than]

What's your distance from the sea?

[Maltese coconut project]

Around 8km away 

[Than]

1 hour ago, Maltese coconut project said:

Around 8km away 

Does it make any difference in Malta? I don't suppose you ever exprience frost?

Edited December 1, 2023 by ego

[Maltese coconut project]

Frost does exist occasionally though not every year. Snow doesn't exist in Malta though. That's because the sea temperature doesn't permit very huge fluctuations between daytime high and night time low temperatures.. Temperature ranges are narrower here.  The difference when it comes to frost is because frost usually forms in Cumulonimbus clouds (thunder clouds) due to their height. 

[Foxpalms]

2 hours ago, ego said:

Does it make any difference in Malta? I don't suppose you ever exprience frost?

In my opinion though if one were tried in Valletta it would have a better chance of surviving. The UHi there and the fact the city is a peninsula surrounded by the sea would surely mean the night temp will be 1-2c warmer.

[Maltese coconut project]

Doesn't make much difference because in Malta almost everywhere is urban including my aream. Malta has become like a capital city by itself. And as I described previously in terms of significant climate difference, Malta is small enough that the sea affects even the centre part of the islands 

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by Maltese coconut project

[Foxpalms]

5 hours ago, Maltese coconut project said:

Doesn't make much difference because in Malta almost everywhere is urban including my aream. Malta has become like a capital city by itself. And as I described previously in terms of significant climate difference, Malta is small enough that the sea affects even the centre part of the islands 

 

I think where you are if one is against a south facing wall planted in the ground when it's a few years old it will work. I know everywhere in Malta is affected by the sea and I can see that you have a UHI but it's larger and more dense around Valletta and Sliema. 

This is a Wunderground stations readings from Feb 2023 in the center of Malta 

Here is one in Sliema which is 0.2miles/0.3km away from the sea. Not a huge difference but warmer.

This one here though is located right next to the sea at the Garden Marina Malta and is quite a bit warmer. 

[Maltese coconut project]

Yes I think it will work. With the right types of fertiliser and correct watering regime - lots in summer and carefully little in winter I think it should work. 

[Greek Exotics]

On 12/1/2023 at 2:16 PM, Maltese coconut project said:

Frost does exist occasionally though not every year. Snow doesn't exist in Malta though. That's because the sea temperature doesn't permit very huge fluctuations between daytime high and night time low temperatures.. Temperature ranges are narrower here.  The difference when it comes to frost is because frost usually forms in Cumulonimbus clouds (thunder clouds) due to their height. 

Woah, I have to recognise I'm very shocked with this statement. I thought Malta was one of the very few places in Europe that never had any single frost. 

Do you know by any chance when was the last time you guys had frost there? Do you think the entire island is 11a or at some kms from the coast it's already 10b?

[Maltese coconut project]

November 2022 for sure. If you skim backwards to my posts in 2022 you'll notice how my pineapples got severely damages and some perished after the frost 

[Maltese coconut project]

Search my post on the 26th November 2022 

[RichardHemsley]

Thanks for the update. You have certainly inspired me to try and germinate and grow one next spring.

[Than]

On 12/6/2023 at 10:00 PM, Maltese coconut project said:

Search my post on the 26th November 2022 

That was hail; not the same thing as frost. Or is it? I am not sure but I think that hail causes mostly mechanical damage while frost causes physiological damage.

[Maltese coconut project]

It was hail you're right 

[Maltese coconut project]

Malta Coconut palm update. The one next to the Franjipani survived winter 2022-2023 despite being just around 40cm at that time. It's the smallest specimen I ever had surviving our local winter outside (24/7) and it was a wet winter with hail storm in November 2022. I am putting the smaller ones inside on the trolley at night this winter.  Temperature on the rooftop is warmer than what is marking on online search 

[Maltese coconut project]

The coconut palm specimen seen in the first 4 photos is a more chill resistant specimen compared to other average specimens. It is also the record smallest specimen that survived a wet Mediterranean winter (2022-2023) being roughly near 60cm when warm temperatures restarted in May 2023. The other specimens that I have in the smaller 3 litre bags never experienced winter outdoors.. This time I am going to only take them out during sunny days and bringing them inside at night and on rainy days I will keep them under growlight. This is because most of them are too vulnerable to risk them in chilly wet winter weather and I don't want to risk same big losses I experienced in winter 2022-2023 

[Maltese coconut project]

Cool temperatures with chills at night. Not watering nothing. I just check for moisture with my finger and if I feel slight moisture I don't water. When feels dry I add just a tiny amount of water just around the crown part of the plants. I bring the smaller coconut seedlings inside under growlight from 7pm to midnight then switch off at midnight.. At 6. 30am I take them out again. All seems to be doing well for now. In summer I used nitrate based nitrogen type npk, potassium nitrate, trace elements, calcium nitrate, silica, HBED chelated iron, magnesium sulfate, molybdenum, to harden them as much as possible and of course lots of sun and watering in summer l. Now opposite, minimum water and no fertiliser till May 

. 

[Maltese coconut project]

My coconut palms at night in Malta. Smaller ones are brought inside under growlight 

[Maltese coconut project]

Coconut in Malta update  26/12/2023. All doing well. Doing my best to find balance with giving just enough tiny but frequent amount of water around the crown to avoid overwatering