Caring for my coconut tree

14 years ago

My wife and I recently purchased a home in Jupiter florida and we were thinking about purchasing a coconut tree because we love coconut water so much. As it turns out, we have a very large coconut tree in our yard that produces fresh and delicious coconuts and we really love them. We have made it our duty to now take care of this tree so that we can enjoy it for many years. We are from NY and no nothing about gardening. I did buy some jobes palm fertilizer and I put in 4 spikes around the drip line of the tree. I hope it is ok to do now since its not march yet.

Our palm trunk looks sort of like this: http://www.bloominbert.com/plant%20pics/p38-coconut-palm-roots.jpg

Did some research and it appears to be the roots, is it ok for it to remain like this? It appears to have 2-3 dead/brown palms that are just hanging, should these be removed?

Any other tips you guys might have to have it produce as much fruit as possible?

many thanks

Will

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Comments (3)

bradleyo_gw
14 years ago
I'm no expert here, but I would say to apply some mulch the the areas of exposed roots and outward from the base of the palm. This could be a completely normal thing for a coconut to do though. Wait for some other responses though. This board tends to be more active amongst experimental gardeners. If nobody here can help, I would suggest the International Palm Society's Palmtalk message board. That is mostly gardeners from tropical locales. My inlaws used to live in Jupiter for 15 years, great place, enjoy. You can always go to a local garden center and ask someone there as well. Also there is a small botanical garden in West Palm Beach called Mount's Botanical Garden that sells dirt cheap plants every Tuesday. If you get the gardening bug, it's a great source for some great plants. Then again, your local nurseries also have great prices for some big stuff.
tropicalzone7
14 years ago
They are easy to take care of. Just make sure that they dont see freezing weather (if there are other large coconut palms in your neighborhood, then you have a mild enough climate to grow them without worrying about cold). Maybe you can add some sand to cover the roots a little bit, but coconut palms are very used to having roots exposed like that and it should be fine. Fertilize it a little bit every spring for some faster growth and thats about it! You dont even need to do that, it will just give you piece of mind and maybe some faster growth and a little bit more fruit.
Good luck!
-Alex
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garyfla_gw
14 years ago
Hi
Nothing could be easier to grow except for two problems both of which you have no control over lol. Cold weather and lethal yellowing. You're in luck this year
Two sources of info . Fairchild gardens (palms) and Floridata for almost everything else . Both have websites. Generally while they will fruit here the nuts are usually not of very high quality . This exceptional year should be very good ?? Most landscape co's lop off the flower spikes of most palms due to the mess but they are usually happy to give you any mature fruit.
Good luck and welcome to south florida!!! I'm located in eastern gardens. gary