I picked 1 up from brookshires and it was already germinated. But it still died and smelled like ruined milk so i threw it out . it hasnt worked for me but it might for you. :) Good luck !!

Grocery store coconuts are not sprouting well now for some reason, and I wish I knew why. Something is obviously being done to them. If you know of anyone who works for the Dept. of Agriculture, try to get to the bottom of this issue and let me know why. I have about 15 grocery store green coconuts in the husk that I am waiting to brown up and then plant. A couple of them are really big, but we only have two grocery stores in the area that carry them in the husk, and only one of these stores has them regularly. I have sprouted one like this last year, and it is about 3ft. tall now. You can reach me at: mr.coconutpalm@yahoo.com

John

I would buy the in-husk coconuts that you see in the Asian/International markets. Some come in showing color and while I realize that can have as much to do with the tree (say, a coconut coming off a Panama Red as opposed to a Green Maypan), I take any show of color as indicating a little bit closer to ripening.

It's possible that no one is doing anything worse to these coconuts these days than just keeping them in over-aggressive air-conditioning, I think. I picked up a coconut at my local Asia market this evening, but the store was so cold with the A/C that I felt sure the germplasm would have likely died already.

The nuts need high heat for a few months. I germinated a coconut that way, one I picked up at a regular grocer (nut was in-husk), by leaving it in a black plastic bag and a bit of soil in half-day sun for 5 months. By Christmas I had a baby coconut palm. That was on the North Gulf Coast, though, not in Atlanta.

I bought a coconut from a supermarket in Montreal Canada 3 weeks ago and didn't know whether I should eat it or try growing it. After almost a week I removed it from its plastic wrapping and gave it a shake listening to all its milk swishing around inside. I thought to myself.."how can I get this thing to grow without a husk???" First thing I did was soak it in very hot water everyday for 2 weeks. I would then remove it from sitting in water for up to 3 hours a day and place it inside a sealed plastic bag (to trick it into thinking the plastic bag was its husk) with lots of air inside. I then sat it with its 3 eyes pointed up inside the bag and mounted onto a coffee cup into a corner of the room. Everyday I would continue the hot water procedure and then put it back into its bag sitting on the coffee cup. After about a week of doing this 1 of the 3 flat eyes suddenly swelled up and popped out like a nipple. After a couple days of putting it into the hot water bath..suddenly (today) the nipple wood gave way and behind it was a white sprout like a potato's eye sprout. This is where the story ends because I'm going to plant it and watch what happens..but so far my "grocery store" coconut is showing promise. The idea is to trick it into believing that it has its husk by placing it into a sealed tight plastic bag and letting the humidity increase around it and kick it into action. I will keep you all posted! :-)