9b cal or 9b fla? Huge difference for a cocos nucifera.

Nice coco!

royalpalm, I'm in 9b Fl. Do coconut tees grow better in 9b cal or 9bfl? I was told mine was a dwarf yellow Malayan. I hope it can survive in the ground, otherwise it's going to get too big for the pot soon.

Thanks us marine. Are you planting one in your area? How big is yours now?

A zone 9b FL is better than a zone 9b CA. Your night time temps are always higher,winter temps are usually mild, & FL has more humidity. A z9b CA night time temps are usually low, as one might look like this: 94f/62f= CA,compared to 92f/73f= FL.Yours should be able to survive outside in ground as long as you protect it from frost. I heard it is possible but requires alot of work. My coco's are very small, 2 of them might be a tall variety, and the other looks like it may be a malayan. I do plan on growing them outside, except one. The 2 I plan on growing outside have been outside since late march.No heating cables, and they are still alive and growing. They have seen night lows in the 40's & many days in a row of temps above 102f.Hope they make it. Good luck with yours:)

I have heard of them there, but I read somewhere that they are hard to keep alive.

I think it should be okay in a zone 9b florida. Just make sure to protect it when temps get below 40 and it should be a long term survivor and even make some fruit. Mulch it for the winter with a black mulch and make sure it has very good drainage like a sandy mixture. Some christmas lights around the base when temps get below 40 will help alot and a sunny spot protected by your home will also add some warmth during freezing nights. I have seen some in soild 9b areas of florida and they do survive but the problem is that every few years or even decades a bad freeze comes along and kills them all. If temps threaten to go below 30 for more than 40 minutes you will also have to wrap the trunk in burlap with maybe some christmas lights outside the burlap. Its a pretty similar way to how some people up north protect more cold tolerant palms and should work well for a coconut in your area during a bad freeze.

I wouldnt plant it in the ground until its too big to bring inside because the more mature they are the better chance for survival. Also plant around late march or early april so it has the entire spring summer and fall to get established in time for the winter.

Good luck!

Where are you exactly? You might have been using an outdated USDA map. The 1990 map is not very accurate because of the awful freezes of the 80's that don't happen hardly ever. This 1995 map is more accurate:

So after looking at this map are you still 9b? If you have shifted to 10a coconuts are pretty safe to grow unprotected.

Your palm looks very similar to mine. You can see pics a few posts down on the board in the title Coconut Palm. Mine is exactly 3 yrs old from sprouting and went directly in the ground. It's been through many freezes and a few hard freezes here in trinity/new port richey Florida. Also 9b. I just keep it very wrapped on those nights with christmas lights on in underneath. Tips of the fronds toward the bottom take some damage but I cut half of those branches off in the spring when new fronds start showing. I just make sure to leave whatever is still green connected to the trunk and only trim off all the brown crispy areas that took the damage. Yours seems to be growing at the same rate as mine. Mine is about 11-12 ft to the top of highest frond and is pushing new fronds out every other week now. Good luck

Thanks to all of you for the very useful tips. I think I'm going to try to plant it to the ground next year in the Spring time. The burlap with Christmas lights is a great idea and it would even make the tree look Christmasy in the Winter. Sometimes I've also thought of wrapping it with bubble wrap, but don't know if that will work better.

The FL planting zone map is very helpful. I'm in the bay area, close to st pete, so I would say at the fringe of 10a, but not quite.

I think planting close to the house definitely will make a great difference. Actually, last Winter, many of my bananas were damaged because of the cold. Only one little one in a pot set close to the house was spared.