San Diego Coconut Trees

[SouthernCATropicals]

January 14, 2026

 

Before the Santa Ana winds comes in usually is the coldest temps of the year where I’m at and these last few days got down to mid 40’sf. Last year that same event brutalized my coconuts but this year the damage is very minimal. It’s kinda hard to see, but there is some spotting and leaf burn on the older fronds especially.

 

Unfortunately, the biggest coconut is extremely close to the powerlines now. My advice to people is assume that your coconuts will be as big as a date palm. We’ll see how that goes.

This coconut looks probably the best but it actually got an extremely bad white fly infestation. I smothered it in insecticide and will keep doing that when it comes back.

 

This coconut might look ugly but I think it has a lot of potential. It is infested with white fly but I smother it with insecticide.

[rockinrickyfox]

its nice to see your palms still going on even with minor setbacks like pests and the cold. if your trees fruit i wonder if you could start a cultivar of california hardy coconuts. i've heard people say its not possible because they dont have cold tolerant traits as a ultra tropical plant yadda yadda. but howcome different coconut palms have more frost tolerance then? just because something doesnt live somewhere naturally doesnt mean it can't develop traits to better suit the location. did you know there are tropical apple trees? apple trees are from the fridgid cold steppe of central asia. basically the same climate as the midwest. they should not have the traits to be evergreen and have adaptations to the heat and latitude and yet they do. dorsett gold and king david are natural apples that are evergreen and need zero chill and they grew from random seeds they werent bred on purpose. i know apple trees arent coconut palms but still. i have some new nectaplum seedlings from a spice zee and they are evergreen even though the mother tree is deciduous the poor thing does struggle to loose its leaves every year lol . i have a two year old tree from the same plant from last year and it has not gone dormant this year or last year its evergreen and is currently pushing out new growth already with all the old leaves still on it like it has adapted to living in a climate with almost no dormancy. plants are more adaptable than we think. different cultivars get more tolerant to different locations and eventually they drift away. this is how you get other cultivars of crops. with trees its takes a bit more time than annuals but you see with annuals some of them naturalized in my yard despite needing to be babied on the first year! even some wheat and oats. same thing with beans i planted. they get more tolerant to the local climate and droughts the more they breed in it the more their genes are exposed to it they mutate.

[Palms1984]

Your coconut palms are looking very good.  Last year and this year so far has been very mild and warm in the urban areas of San Diego.  I have a Licuala grandis which has been outside in a protected spot for two years, and is now growing a new frond.  I find it pretty amazing!  
 

I know in the College Area where I live (on a south-facing hill) temps very rarely go below 43 degrees during winter. 

[SouthernCATropicals]

10 hours ago, rockinrickyfox said:

its nice to see your palms still going on even with minor setbacks like pests and the cold. if your trees fruit i wonder if you could start a cultivar of california hardy coconuts. 

Thank you😀

I would love to work towards that. If anything, the vigor of the biggest coconut makes it way more suitable for coastal California climate, so if it ever did fruit then I’d hope the resulting plants would have that vigor or maybe more. There isn’t frost here but achieving good healthy growth in lower temperatures is what makes this one special. The smaller green one lacks that vigor completely, it waited until the hottest part of summer to really grow again. That isn’t suitable for my climate.  The yellow one really isn’t a good candidate, but I think it’s just so pretty and unique haha. Plus since it’s in a pot, I have the ability to take better care of it

[SouthernCATropicals]

6 hours ago, Palms1984 said:

Your coconut palms are looking very good.  Last year and this year so far has been very mild and warm in the urban areas of San Diego.  I have a Licuala grandis which has been outside in a protected spot for two years, and is now growing a new frond.  I find it pretty amazing!  
 

I know in the College Area where I live (on a south-facing hill) temps very rarely go below 43 degrees during winter. 

Thank you! 
 

It has been really warm at night this winter, I’m sure they really appreciate that.
 

Wow that’s really cool the licuala growing now. I would love to try those if I had space. Such a pretty Palm. I’m just a few neighborhoods west of you. 

[rockinrickyfox]

14 hours ago, SouthernCATropicals said:

Thank you😀

I would love to work towards that. If anything, the vigor of the biggest coconut makes it way more suitable for coastal California climate, so if it ever did fruit then I’d hope the resulting plants would have that vigor or maybe more. There isn’t frost here but achieving good healthy growth in lower temperatures is what makes this one special. The smaller green one lacks that vigor completely, it waited until the hottest part of summer to really grow again. That isn’t suitable for my climate.  The yellow one really isn’t a good candidate, but I think it’s just so pretty and unique haha. Plus since it’s in a pot, I have the ability to take better care of it

i wonder if those kanoa hawaii nuts would be similar to your big one. from what i've heard most famous cocos we know of in the state are descended from what vacationers bring back from hawaii. i know kyle has experience growing them here and tolerating the cold.  might be a cultivar worth trying out for future reference although i know you're probably out of space by now haha. im for sure going to take a crack at them in February i just want to wait for the days to get a bit longer. been a pretty warm winter so far.  

[SouthernCATropicals]

7 hours ago, rockinrickyfox said:

i wonder if those kanoa hawaii nuts would be similar to your big one. from what i've heard most famous cocos we know of in the state are descended from what vacationers bring back from hawaii. i know kyle has experience growing them here and tolerating the cold.  might be a cultivar worth trying out for future reference although i know you're probably out of space by now haha. 

There is certainly no place for them in ground, unless I took out a fruit tree in the front. I’m kinda over the taste of ice cream bean so that might be a candidate lol. I would definitely take on a Hawaiian coconut with a big coconut seed as well as a red spicada. Maybe I’ll look into ordering them like you in marchish. I’d keep them in big pots until they’re bursting out of them.
 

I think I need more coconuts to better understand the different types like you said hah.  Btw my insta username is the same, I grow other fruit trees. 

[SouthernCATropicals]

March 4, 2026

This was a very warm winter, constant heatwaves with temperatures in the 80’s. I only ever used the AC 3 times last summer and I used it with this last heat wave when it got to 90f. 

This big one shot out a new frond. It’s getting really wide. There was a night where it got to like 44f since I last posted and you might be able to see the bronzing on the older fronds if you look closely. 

 

This yellow one is looking really good I think. I have been pumping it full of fertilizer constantly…I think it responds to that. Ever since late January, the White fly for the most part stopped attacking this one. I think that means it’s very healthy because of all of the heat and fertilizer because white fly attack weak plants. I should probably plant it soon in ground. I just have no idea where such a big plant could fit. It might replace the inga in the front.

This one has had constant issues with white flies. It’s not growing much but that is what it did last year too. 
 

[SouthernCATropicals]

A few more, here’s a close up of a frond I showed in the last post for growth comparison.

then this one

 The visible trunk form a distance 😍

[kylecawazafla]

One of my friends is growing several coconuts in Brawley, CA. They are coming into their third summer now. I wonder whose will fruit first! haha. Yours looks flawless! 

[SouthernCATropicals]

1 hour ago, kylecawazafla said:

One of my friends is growing several coconuts in Brawley, CA. They are coming into their third summer now. I wonder whose will fruit first! haha. Yours looks flawless! 

Thank you man! I hope me haha. I know dwarf coconuts can fruit earlier on and these maypan coconuts are mixed so maybe I’ll get lucky these next few years. Are the ones in Brawley from Florida as well? 

[bubba]

You must have a beneficent microclimate! Your coconuts are magnificent and growing at a very fast pace. It is great to see people working hard to expand the realm of this beautiful tropical palm.

[SouthernCATropicals]

16 hours ago, bubba said:

You must have a beneficent microclimate! Your coconuts are magnificent and growing at a very fast pace. It is great to see people working hard to expand the realm of this beautiful tropical palm.

Thank you!

[SCVpalmenthusiast]

Looks awesome, I wonder if these would do well in palm desert Palm Springs area. Where the winters stay around 70s. 

[SouthernCATropicals]

1 hour ago, SCVpalmenthusiast said:

Looks awesome, I wonder if these would do well in palm desert Palm Springs area. Where the winters stay around 70s. 

Thank you! I think it is worth trying. I think Hawaiian ones have done good out there. These 3 are maypan, the big one got some burn when it got to like 100f one time like 2 summers ago. Although maybe it would adapt to that. Also they get significant damage from any night it dips just below 50f. I’m not super familiar with what is typical out there during winter but they’re really don’t like below 50f even for a moment. 
 

After living alongside these maypans for these last few years this is what I think they need:

-(climate)Large quantity of days above 70f during winter 

-(climate) very minimal nights dipping below 50f 

-(the coconuts traits)vigor to stay actively growing all year 

-(climate) I would assume there are death temperatures around 32f, so none of that 

-(climate)they really respond to daylight changes, so latitude is probably particularly important to them

[kylecawazafla]

11 hours ago, SCVpalmenthusiast said:

Looks awesome, I wonder if these would do well in palm desert Palm Springs area. Where the winters stay around 70s. 

Here's one in La Quinta, CA! Apparently it's from a coconut brought from Maui, HI!

[SCVpalmenthusiast]

1 hour ago, kylecawazafla said:

Here's one in La Quinta, CA! Apparently it's from a coconut brought from Maui, HI!

Holy smokes that’s the largest ive seen bigger than the del mar one.

[SouthernCATropicals]

2 hours ago, kylecawazafla said:

Here's one in La Quinta, CA! Apparently it's from a coconut brought from Maui, HI!

It looks fantastic. I wonder if it has flowered yet, it’s soooo big

[kylecawazafla]

19 minutes ago, SouthernCATropicals said:

It looks fantastic. I wonder if it has flowered yet, it’s soooo big

It was flowered many times but has yet to fruit. There was a fruiting one in Palm Desert, CA, however it was cut down by the new owners  They left the two queens palms though 🙄

[SCVpalmenthusiast]

9 hours ago, kylecawazafla said:

It was flowered many times but has yet to fruit. There was a fruiting one in Palm Desert, CA, however it was cut down by the new owners  They left the two queens palms though 🙄

I just looked it up on YouTube. 

Could it be the low deserts may be the best place to grow cocos in California. I guess it makes sense climate wise, they stay the hottest during winter, if you can water it enough it looks like it can succeed very well.