Thats a beautiful coco. How old is it?

- US_Marine

I estimate it is about 2 to 2 and a half years old. I bought it at a nursery in the Rio Grande Valley last June. It is about 8ft. tall to the top of the crown. How about emailing me some recent photos of your cocos or uploading them here.

Thats not bad growth at all! My first coconut palm I ever had I got it to survive 4 years and was only a little taller than 5ish feet. And will do :) lol Might be a little while first though. Been busy lately.

- US_Marine

I want to see that bismarck in the back of that pic, nice coco none the less lol

There are some nice looking Bismarcks around town here, some about 15-18ft. tall to the top of the crown. I have a friend in La Feria, a small town just west of Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley that has a Bismark that is probably pushing 25ft. tall!

Here are a couple of photos (before and after) of a Mexican Tall coconut palm in Brownsville. The first photo is about 5 years old and the last photo is about a year old. In the second photo, the palm is recovering from a bad winter the Rio Grande Valley had, but as you can tell, the palm is about 35-38ft. tall to the top of the crown. Yes, they do produce coconuts there if people who have them in the Valley water them enough. The Rio Grande Valley is a semi arid climate, with Brownsville only averaging about 26-27 inches of rainfall per year, so unless they are given supplemental watering, the cocos in the Rio Grande Valley sometimes don't fruit. Lack of watering there also limits the growth of royal palms too. I have seen some in the Valley though, that have received ample water that are beautiful and rival many I have seen in South Florida, some about 45ft. tall to the top of the crown.

Here is the second photo of the same coconut palm in Brownsville. This photo was taken this past spring (in late March I think) as the palm was recovering from a bad winter in the Valley. Notice the height of it though!

That's the biggest problem I have in the dry season, some of my coconuts just don't get enough water. If I was nearer the coast instead of inland it wouldn't be as bad. Probably running a decent sized irrigation line to them would fix the problem but they're not in the best spot for that.

Hey tropicbreezent, do you live in a semi arid part of Australia? Have you thought about trying to set up some sort of cistern near your cocos to collect water when it does rain, then running a water line to your palms about once a week during dry periods to water them? I think once a week of a good watering should be enough for them.

By the way, what are your normal highs and lows in the winter there, and the normal lowest low temp each winter? What is your all time record low where you are?

Mr Coconut, during the dry season there's no rain to provide water for irrigation, then wet season the rain is torrential and the ground is saturated for the duration. I've been working on a system to give them just enough during the dry time but in reality I need a new irrigation line for them. And that line is going to have to be something like 200 metres long. The wet season has started here so I don't need to do anything until about May. (I am the world's greatest procrastinator!)

The climate here is equatorial savanna, we get a distinct dry season and a distinct wet season. There's no official records for climate where I am that I know of. Darwin is on the coast and their coldest ever was 10.4C So mine would probably have been around 8C.

Last year was the coldest ever recorded and on my Davis Vantage Pro2 weather station my 2012 winter average was maximum 32.2C, minimum 13.4C. For 2010 winter average maximum was 33.4C, minimum 18.4C. On average we get over 350 days per year of over 30C.

Seeing there's a number of threads on coconuts in various locations I might as well start one on mine to show how it looks here.

Tropicbreezent, you certainly have mild winters. I guess it's because you are in an equatorial climate that changes very little temperature wise. Here in North America, even as far south as Miami, Florida, the all time record low is 27F, but their normal low in January is around 59F and their normal high in January is around 76F. Here in Corpus Christi, Texas, the all time record low is 11F. Where I live on a small peninsula (Flour Bluff) a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico on the far east side of Corpus Christi, I would estimate the all time record low to be around 13 or 14F. Our normal high/low at the airport (about 18 miles inland from here) in January is 66F/46F. Where I live, I estimate the averages for January to be 64F/50F. At Brownsville, about 130 miles south of here, the all time record low is 12F (Brownsville is about 26 miles inland from the Gulf), and their averages for January are 69F/50F. The lower Texas coast can go for 15-20+ years at a time without getting into the teens, so for those living on the immediate coastline, like where I am at, we can grow coconut palms for 5-10+ years at a time between coconut killing freezes (freezes in the mid 20's or lower).

The Mexican Tall variety of coconut palm is probably the most cold hardy in the Western Hemisphere. I estimate it to be hardy down to 26F. The one in Brownsville in the above photos has survived several nights in the mid to upper 20'sF over the last 10-15 years, and has even survived a couple of inches of snow at Christmas 2004 (the first measurable snowfall Brownsville had in 105 years). There are some of the Malayan Dwarf varieties (green, golden, and yellow), and hybrids between the Mexican Talls and Malayan Dwarfs that are grown on the lower Texas Coast. The Malayan Dwarfs seem to suffer the most here because as I estimate, they are only hardy to about 28F and probably can't take week long cold snaps in the 40's and 50's as well as a mature Mexican Tall can.

Does anyone in the valley grow Beccariophoenix? It has a similar look to Cocos, but has better cold hardiness.

Hey Cliff98, I don't think anyone except maybe some collectors grow that species. It is a species that I only became familiar with when someone in Louisiana contacted me last year about coconut palms and told me about this palm. I had never heard of it before, and it is not listed in the Betrock's Landscape Palms. I think it is a variety that hasn't gotten into widespread horticultural production, but seems to show promise for the tropical look, especially for areas that the coconut palm is too cold sensitive for.

I'm going to try and upload a photo of one for everyone else following the thread.

It does grow slower than a coconut palm, much slower, but you won't have to worry about protecting it at least those of you in zone 9b which would include parts of Corpus Christi and the RGV.

Grest pictures, thank you for sharing. I'll post a picture of mine in the next couple of days. It's actually going to push 60 tomorrow so I will be taking it outside for the day to get cleaned off by the breeze and maybe some rain. the average high here this time of year is 32 so this really is something. We may even see some sun and that is unheard of. 60 has happened before but i don't ever remember the sun coming out AND it be this warm. Typically sun in the winter here means COLD.

The other advantage of the Beccariophoenix is lack of coconuts. Falling coconuts can be lethal and are a worry when you have visitors wandering around.