San Diego Coconut Trees

[SouthernCATropicals]

12 minutes ago, rockinrickyfox said:

My sprout is getting some browning on the tips, any idea what it could be? Have you gotten this problem before?

It looks normal and healthy to me. All the coconuts have little brown spots on their leafs at that age, I wouldn’t read into it. Looking back at the first page of this thread all my coconuts when they were little had those brown marks it probably it just is it’s reaction to adapting to new conditions even is they’re favorable new conditions. 

I think the only real indicator of a coconuts health is if it’s continually growing, and if the new leafs look healthier and stronger than the previous leafs. 

[rockinrickyfox]

6 minutes ago, SouthernCATropicals said:

It looks normal and healthy to me. All the coconuts have little brown spots on their leafs at that age, I wouldn’t read into it. Looking back at the first page of this thread all my coconuts when they were little had those brown marks it probably it just is it’s reaction to adapting to new conditions even is they’re favorable new conditions. 

I think the only real indicator of a coconuts health is if it’s continually growing, and if the new leafs look healthier and stronger than the previous leafs. 

oh yeah you're right. even though it seemed to not react at first its probably catching up to the sudden change. i bet its really confusing going from costa rica to california! well it does seem to be growing. one time when i was watering the nut started floating so i had to replant deeper and make sure dirt covered more of it to weight it down. it but i saw it growing another root. 

[JohnAndSancho]

8 hours ago, rockinrickyfox said:

refrigerated? not sure they would sprout. the ones where i live are never refrigerated. its all just sitting in the open.

 they look pretty big. i would say they're probably talls.  if its a tall then its probably mexican tall or panama tall which are cold hardy. 

if you hear water inside and they float it could be fair game just not sure how refrigerated ones would fair considering coconuts aren't supposed to survive winters that are constantly refrigeration temps. i would try if its all you got around though. 

I've seen bigger ones. I guess the photo is decieving. I don't know how big your average coconut is, but these might be as big as a hairy pumelo - pumelos are just one more thing i could find all day in Texas that I'll never see here lol. But yeah they slosh, and as far as the refrigeration goes I don't think it'd be any different than like, stratifying seeds or something. It's not like putting a live plant in the fridge. 

I just need to keep telling myself I'm not trying anything new until I get these bananas dialed in, I get my native plant propogations going, and more palm seeds sprout. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I've seen bigger ones. I guess the photo is decieving. I don't know how big your average coconut is, but these might be as big as a hairy pumelo - pumelos are just one more thing i could find all day in Texas that I'll never see here lol. But yeah they slosh, and as far as the refrigeration goes I don't think it'd be any different than like, stratifying seeds or something. It's not like putting a live plant in the fridge. 

I just need to keep telling myself I'm not trying anything new until I get these bananas dialed in, I get my native plant propogations going, and more palm seeds sprout. 

Ok, after doing some quick and dirty research, it's more than likely that these grocery store coconuts are a Pacific Tall, which seems to be more of a generic catch-all than a specific variety. The nuts are maybe 6-8" and slightly hairier than me. (I don't remember who said it, but I had my arm in a picture and someone called it a Trachycarpus. That... Was freaking hilarious)

So I'd run into all kinds of logistical problems trying to grow one of these - I guess as long as it was under 2-3 feet tall I could keep it under the grow lights in my back grow room with bottom heat and wrap another heat mat around the pot, and leave a space heater and a humidifier going. But any bigger than that? We have some awesome in-wall propane heaters (way cheaper than electric for a house this big), but where the heaters are, it's not very bright and hanging grow lights in a back room that's been unused for 15 years is one thing. Doing it in the living room is another. 

 

So if I'm gonna do a Mississippi Coconut... I mean 4 bucks is 4 bucks but I think I'd be better off looking for a cool hardy dwarf variety because the idea of trying to keep that back room at 80-90 degrees for 5 or 6 months just doesn't appeal to me at all. I mean sure, I'd def have some bragging rights but outside of maybe 8 or 10 people on this forum, nobody would care lol. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok, more researching has told me that refrigerating coconuts is, in fact, terrible for the embryo and germinating a refrigerated coconut is as likely as me getting a date with Sydney Sweeney or Karol G or winning the lottery or a piano falling on me as I walk down the street or... You get the point. So we're gonna table this for now unless someone wants to donate a viable "cool hardy" coconut to the John and Sancho East Mississippi Palm Conservatorium, or trade one for whatever I've got laying around (cough cough still have 2 nice Sabal Bermudana seedlings cough cough)

[SouthernCATropicals]

September 27, 2025

This big coconut will now officially be two years old around now. Im on my ladder today. So a different view. I chopped and dropped a ton of passion fruit vines for mulch. 2 nice new leafs coming in. Sorry about the mess lol

 

This one is kind of harder to see but it has some nice big leafs now 

 

 

[Dimimelbourne]

On 9/17/2025 at 5:21 AM, SouthernCATropicals said:

September 16, 2025

 

I weeded and cleaned up the base of this one and it has some trunk as well. 

 

I tried taking better pics of this one. 

So impressive! San Diego is already such a cool city but now with these coconuts?  👌🏽🔥

 

My experiment of trying to sprout one on the balcony is out of time. Didn’t even get a look in and it’s been a couple of weeks. Weather is starting to “cool down” slightly and I’m out of patients 😂 

[JohnAndSancho]

41 minutes ago, Dimimelbourne said:

So impressive! San Diego is already such a cool city but now with these coconuts?  👌🏽🔥

 

My experiment of trying to sprout one on the balcony is out of time. Didn’t even get a look in and it’s been a couple of weeks. Weather is starting to “cool down” slightly and I’m out of patients 😂 

Check Palmtalker RickyBobby's account Southern Ontario Palms (or something like that) on YouTube. He sprouted them inside using an aquarium heater and a bucket of water and a Ziploc baggie. I'm going to try this except using heat mats. 

[Dimimelbourne]

35 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Check Palmtalker RickyBobby's account Southern Ontario Palms (or something like that) on YouTube. He sprouted them inside using an aquarium heater and a bucket of water and a Ziploc baggie. I'm going to try this except using heat mats. 

Definitely sounds like a good idea and workable but I live in an apartment with a closed in balcony. I’m not into the aesthetics of having this little wet bag or bucket lying around, it’s such an eye sore for me 😂

I think I’ll keep an eye out for sprouted ones if they ever come up in these parts, or if I can get them online perhaps.

 Also had foxtail seeds soaked and sitting in a pot, after a few weeks they’re in the bin too… I hate seeing empty pots with dirt in such a small space. In my next place if I have an area I can hide I may try again haha

[JohnAndSancho]

4 hours ago, Dimimelbourne said:

Definitely sounds like a good idea and workable but I live in an apartment with a closed in balcony. I’m not into the aesthetics of having this little wet bag or bucket lying around, it’s such an eye sore for me 😂

I think I’ll keep an eye out for sprouted ones if they ever come up in these parts, or if I can get them online perhaps.

 Also had foxtail seeds soaked and sitting in a pot, after a few weeks they’re in the bin too… I hate seeing empty pots with dirt in such a small space. In my next place if I have an area I can hide I may try again haha

Can't blame you there. When I had my apartment I had an entire jungle on my patio so I could hide an extra pot of dirt easy, and I've got an entire extra room to grow in now and nobody goes in there except me and the dog so no worries there either. 

[SouthernCATropicals]

8 hours ago, Dimimelbourne said:

So impressive! San Diego is already such a cool city but now with these coconuts?  👌🏽🔥

I really appreciate it man! 
 

8 hours ago, Dimimelbourne said:

My experiment of trying to sprout one on the balcony is out of time. Didn’t even get a look in and it’s been a couple of weeks. Weather is starting to “cool down” slightly and I’m out of patients 😂 

I’m horrible at germinating anything I always ordered them as little sprouts from Miami or one time Hawaii. But I think it’s too late to get coconuts from Florida bc one time I ordered a coconut around October and it arrived completely black (I can’t remember if i posted it ever here). It must have passed through somewhere very cold on its journey lol 

6 hours ago, Dimimelbourne said:

 Also had foxtail seeds soaked and sitting in a pot

There’s some foxtail palms in the distance in the above photo if you can spot them ahah 

7 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

. He sprouted them inside using an aquarium heater and a bucket of water and a Ziploc baggie. I'm going to try this except using heat mats. 

I put coconuts in a bucket in water and put it in my  very hot “attic” during summer and they just rotten and I never tried again

[JohnAndSancho]

2 hours ago, SouthernCATropicals said:

 

I put coconuts in a bucket in water and put it in my  very hot “attic” during summer and they just rotten and I never tried again

This is a little different. He soaked them in a bucket of water for a day or 2, then put them in a Ziploc bag opened, then put the Ziploc bag in the bucket of water not fully submerged, then put an aquarium heater in the bucket set to 85-90°F. He said most of them sprouted within a week. 

[Dimimelbourne]

7 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Can't blame you there. When I had my apartment I had an entire jungle on my patio so I could hide an extra pot of dirt easy, and I've got an entire extra room to grow in now and nobody goes in there except me and the dog so no worries there either. 

Yes well that’s the plan, the balcony’s a little spartan atm for my taste but I’m trying to get it more jungly while still keeping it “sorted.” An extra room for plants sounds like a dream. It should be a prerequisite for any abode really. A house without a plant room will never truly be a home will it. 

[Dimimelbourne]

6 hours ago, SouthernCATropicals said:

I really appreciate it man! 
 

I’m horrible at germinating anything I always ordered them as little sprouts from Miami or one time Hawaii. But I think it’s too late to get coconuts from Florida bc one time I ordered a coconut around October and it arrived completely black (I can’t remember if i posted it ever here). It must have passed through somewhere very cold on its journey lol 

There’s some foxtail palms in the distance in the above photo if you can spot them ahah 

I put coconuts in a bucket in water and put it in my  very hot “attic” during summer and they just rotten and I never tried again

Yes buying sprouted is the way to go!

[SouthernCATropicals]

October 12, 2025

Me standing in front of the coconut for size comparison. I’m 6’1 ft and the coconut is raised above ground level a bit. 
 

Does anyone know what this is? It’s like red specs on the bottom of the coconut fronds and looks like hot Cheetos on my fingers when I wipe it off.

This one is a bit raggedly actually 

[SouthernCATropicals]

October 15, 2025

 

We got a good rain last night. The newest frond opened right up just like it does if it was fertilized. 

[rockinrickyfox]

On 10/12/2025 at 5:05 PM, SouthernCATropicals said:

October 12, 2025

Me standing in front of the coconut for size comparison. I’m 6’1 ft and the coconut is raised above ground level a bit. 
 

Does anyone know what this is? It’s like red specs on the bottom of the coconut fronds and looks like hot Cheetos on my fingers when I wipe it off.

This one is a bit raggedly actually 

i've gotten those red spots on a dwarf phoenix before. probably not a big deal. i just let it be and it went away. im guessing its some kind of fungal issue. it cleared after a bit all i did was fertilize the palm. sometimes when plants get weakened from temporary stressors, they become more vulnerable just like humans do. anything from not enough nutrients to temperature swings.

[JohnAndSancho]

I dunno how much longer to give my coconut sprouting attempt before I 86 it. It's been a few weeks and nothing is moving and I have had to roll it and spray it with fungicide for white fuzzy stuff growing in the husk. I dunno if I kept it too wet, if it's not warm enough, I dunno but I'd def want to discard it before it rots. It's been sitting in a Ziploc bag with just a splash of water, inside a bucket of water, and I don't have an aquarium heater so it's on a heat mat and I moved the temp probe of the heat mat underneath it. It's def not enough to keep the water at 85-90°f for sure.

Do I chalk it up to the game and buy a sprouted coconut in spring? Do I just realize this wasn't feasible here? Do I just take it out of the water altogether and lay it in soil on its side and hope for the best? 

[SouthernCATropicals]

On 10/21/2025 at 9:46 PM, rockinrickyfox said:

i've gotten those red spots on a dwarf phoenix before. probably not a big deal. i just let it be and it went away. im guessing its some kind of fungal issue. 

I’m going to wash them down with water and a paper towel, it just keeps accumulating more and more. The taller one doesn’t get anything like that but it’s high enough that there’s crazy winds up there all day and night so I think fungus is impossible up there  

[SouthernCATropicals]

Nov 9, 2025

I did a little coconut photoshoot today. The big coconut is growing pretty rapidly. I hope now that it is older than last year it will grow through winter. I believe it slowed around November last year. One big difference is it is dramatically taller than last year so it gets hours more of sun. So far it has barely dipped below 60f at night. It’s hard to tell but it is plus 1 frond since the last pic if you look closely.

 Here is the other coconut

 

the yellow one is fine, a little ugly and not growing a ton. I forgot to take a pic but I recorded a YouTube video with it and I can post the link if you guys care hah

one of my two Pritchardia hildibradiis. I hear the South American palm weevil like pritchardias and palm trees are dropping like flies around here 😖

[Urban Rainforest]

Your Coconuts are looking awesome and putting on some good size! The Coconut I planted in Del Mar always looked its best in Dec. with a full crown if healthy fronds right before the winter storms and cold weather hit.

[SouthernCATropicals]

20 minutes ago, Urban Rainforest said:

Your Coconuts are looking awesome and putting on some good size! The Coconut I planted in Del Mar always looked its best in Dec. with a full crown if healthy fronds right before the winter storms and cold weather hit.

I really appreciate that! I hope that it doesn’t get to set back by winter this time too much   

[Jim in Los Altos]

If that gorgeous coconut continues to flourish and grow, will it be getting into those overhead wires? 

[SouthernCATropicals]

26 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

If that gorgeous coconut continues to flourish and grow, will it be getting into those overhead wires? 

Thank you! 😊 

I actually would be pretty worried about the powelines except SD happens to be moving electric underground and my neighborhood is half done already so I heard you can ask the city to remove the powelines and they will, supposedly. 
 

So I got lucky I think lol