My first Cocos Nucifera

[ngiann]

Hi to all.

Recently i visited Crete island and among other plants (arcontophoenix alex, b.armata,s.romanzofiana, rhapis, wodyetia, r.regia, lychee, mango, avocado, papaya, anona)  i bought from a nursery a c.nucifera seedling.

Any idea what variety might be?

I will leave it outside until temp falls constantly below 8-9C, then i'll move it in a protected place.

Next year will see..

[bubba]

I am not sure of the variety but am certain at your Latitude,you will have the most Northern and Southern growing Coconut in the World.Not a bad distinction! Go for it!

[Janni]

Hi Niko,

i'm new to this forum. i'm greek, living in germany and also a palm enthusiast. everytime i go to greece i notice, that almost all palms there are phoenix canariensis or washingtonias. this is kind of sad, because the climate allows much more than that. last year i've been to nafplio and was very impressed. they have planted huge syagrus romanzoffianas all around the city and some sabals and livistonas in the park. now you're writing about obtaining such tropical palms like roystonea regia, wodyetia bifurcata and archontophoenix IN GREECE! that would be great if people there realize that there are other plants and palms than the ordinary ones will you plant them in your garden or keep them in pots?

as for your coconut palm. i think it's a "netherland" variety these are those coconut palms you can buy in every nursery even here in germany. they made varieties which are less susceptible to any disease but to mites... keep it as long as possible outdoors, but if the comming winter will be like the past one, than you have to protect it. and all the other palms too, even in Aegina! i hope not so. i think the best places in greec for any tropical palm are crete, rhodes and karpathos. the temperatures there never fall below 2 or 1°C.

i hope we'll get some more pics from your garden

Γεια χαρά!

[Tyrone]

I've found that coconuts really need to get to at least 20C every day through winter to keep going. Depending on the variety they'll take 4 and 5C minimums provided they get back up to 20C or more during the day. Long cold winters that don't average above 16-18C will end a coconut.

Tyrone

[Janni]

Hi Tyrone,

you might be right, but the same is said about other tropical plants too. like scheffleras or rubber tree (ficus elastica) but they grow everywhere in the warmer parts of greece. and in winter the average temps are at 15°C during daytime and 7°C in the night. as long as there is no freeze, it might be possible to grow a coconut. i think it's worth trying...

[ngiann]

 now you're writing about obtaining such tropical palms like roystonea regia, wodyetia bifurcata and archontophoenix IN GREECE! that would be great if people there realize that there are other plants and palms than the ordinary ones will you plant them in your garden or keep them in pots?

as for your coconut palm. i think it's a "netherland" variety

Janni, the nursery owner in Crete, is a hobbyist as well, that's why he has many palms that simply cannot be found elsewhere. He buys and collects seeds from around the world and he has propagation table and materials. I was lucky that i saw his nursery.

My plans for the coco: i will try to replicate the method in this thread:Coco growing method

I'll post the progress periodically

[Tyrone]

Hi Tyrone,

you might be right, but the same is said about other tropical plants too. like scheffleras or rubber tree (ficus elastica) but they grow everywhere in the warmer parts of greece. and in winter the average temps are at 15°C during daytime and 7°C in the night. as long as there is no freeze, it might be possible to grow a coconut. i think it's worth trying...

Hi Janni,

Don't let me put you off trying. Be prepared to give it some help though.

Ficus elastica is actually much more cold tolerant than Cocos nucifera. They grow everywhere over here, and way down along the south coast, which gets the cold weather directly from Antarctica, but Cocos won't grow along the south coast. There are only one maybe two growing in the ground in Perth without much protection. Mine may become another one. We average in a normal year 8C min to 18C max in the coldest couple of months, which is really 2C too cool. I've had to create a microclimate area for mine and for it's early stages a plastic covering. If it's sunny and say 16C, it's 36C in there. Cocos need the daytime temps to warm up quickly, or they just go backwards quickly.

Best regards

Tyrone

[bubba]

I see your reference to a Coconut grower on Crete.The Latitude of Crete is 35'30 North.If he has an established Coconut,he may already hold the world record.Any way to contact him for a picture?

[DeletedAccount14e83d09a24f]

I see your reference to a Coconut grower on Crete.The Latitude of Crete is 35'30 North.If he has an established Coconut,he may already hold the world record.Any way to contact him for a picture?

I think I will buy one, the climate of my zone is the same as in Crete, I would say even better, but that's a personal opinion. Here winters are a little little little bit warmer than in Crete, but I see that the other seasons are almost the same. (but obviously this isn't the best climate in continental Spain) We have thousands of km2 of oranges/tangerines, here is no freezing record data in the last 30 years. And I am at 38ºN !

Here only ~3 months a year the maximum temperatures go under 20º (November max. averages are 20º and March ones are 20º too) so I think I can try it, why not! But now I need the terrain to plant it, coz actually I am living in a flat

Edited January 8, 2015 by pRoeZa*

[DeletedAccount14e83d09a24f]

Hi Niko,

i'm new to this forum. i'm greek, living in germany and also a palm enthusiast. everytime i go to greece i notice, that almost all palms there are phoenix canariensis or washingtonias. this is kind of sad, because the climate allows much more than that. last year i've been to nafplio and was very impressed. they have planted huge syagrus romanzoffianas all around the city and some sabals and livistonas in the park. now you're writing about obtaining such tropical palms like roystonea regia, wodyetia bifurcata and archontophoenix IN GREECE! that would be great if people there realize that there are other plants and palms than the ordinary ones will you plant them in your garden or keep them in pots?

as for your coconut palm. i think it's a "netherland" variety these are those coconut palms you can buy in every nursery even here in germany. they made varieties which are less susceptible to any disease but to mites... keep it as long as possible outdoors, but if the comming winter will be like the past one, than you have to protect it. and all the other palms too, even in Aegina! i hope not so. i think the best places in greec for any tropical palm are crete, rhodes and karpathos. the temperatures there never fall below 2 or 1°C.

i hope we'll get some more pics from your garden

Γεια χαρά!

Amen to that, I say exactly the same, only changing where you say "Greece" with "Spain" and "Crete" with my zone, "Gandía" Our major problem is the lack of awareness from the local authorities.

Here is exactly the same. We have potential to grow almost all kinds of palm trees but the 90% are phoenix or washingtonias. Well, this same explanation will apply for both of us; This climate is not good for them. Well it is, but it's not if we talk about precipitations. In Crete like here, we get 300-400mm of rain per year... that's from far a very poor mark for those kind of palm trees. I've seen a lot of syagrus, roystonea, wodyetia... even some dypsis and archontophoenix, and a lot lookalike tropical palm trees which I don't remember their names at the moment, about half of them were only in private gardens (where they get all the water they need) and all were totally healthy.

For example I've seen those ones that are absolutely marvelous; they grow exactly the same as they do in Cuba! (they are planted on a private terrain, not a house, a terrain; so I think all they get it's water directly from the nature, they haven't got any special cares; but for example 2014 here was very very very dry, without any raining for about 7-8 months)

If you go to richer zones on the coast, like in South California; approximately the half of the existing palm trees are syagrus, and I've seen in this zone Syagrus even at towns at ~300-350m of altitude and quite far from the sea. This altitude can improve 150-200m more if we talk about the warmest zones on southernmost Spain. I put the example of the "richer zones" because those are the zones with the best outdoor and public private gardens. Those are the zones with predominant tropical vegetation because are planted on green outdoor spaces and are a lot irrigated, and there is where I've seen in the same place Roystonea Regia, Syagrus Romanzoffiana and Wodyetia Bifurcata.

Those are at ~300m but they aren't very far to the sea... about 15-20km

They mark a very tropical view of whatever they are planted. They can be found in a lot of more places... but they need much more water than they get from precipitations, I think the bigger ones I posted before get more water because they are in a terrain surrounded of orange trees, and here all the orange trees are irrigated and have near water reservoirs.

Edited January 8, 2015 by pRoeZa*