Ikea coconut palm

[ElTel]

i was dragged round ikea last sunday anyway got to near the end and they have quite a lot of nice plants, so i bought myself 2 of the coconut palms. am i ok putting them outside for the rest of the summer and then bringing them in for the winter?

[jezza]

My one has been outside for the past 6 weeks and it's going brown. I think it's pretty much indoors only.

[lucienc]

Just taking them home is enough to kill them.

[carolpz]

I agree, they have been forced in high temp tunnels and will die if you so much as look at them. Keep indoors and enjoy just for the summer then say a fond farewell.

[stephenprudence]

There is one in a cafe in Birkenhead that they have somehow kept alive into mature frond stage, however in most cases you will find unless you give it very strong light, it will die sooner or later. The enemy isn't the cold, it's actually the poor quality of British light and lack of relative humidity.

[redsquirrel]

put some brass handles on your green bag for probably the best coconut burial ever

[Nick]

we did warn you that we just can't grow them here and all you can do is dream about having one
sorry just had to sqreeze that one in

[Devonian Jungle]

You can grow them, don't listen to them! If you have a warm, bright enough location (very sunny south facing window) they will grow. They will put about 3-4 whole leaves out before they begin to get pinnate. Once they are pinnate, the palm grows faster and is easier to grow indoors. If you keep it potbound, it will grow well but still remain small as seen in this photo (not mine):


On the European Palm Society and PalmTalk forums there is a guy called Kai who knows all the tricks of growing a coconut palm indoors.
Good luck with your palms

[Cathy]

I am surprised to see your picture devonian jungle, as I had thought everyone was talking about the palms with 5ft tall fronds growing from a large nut in a small pot, which they sell in supermarkets etc. for about £10 or less The one in your picture is very small
...take no notice of me
Cathy.

[Devonian Jungle]

I am surprised to see your picture devonian jungle, as I had thought everyone was talking about the palms with 5ft tall fronds growing from a large nut in a small pot, which they sell in supermarkets etc. for about £10 or less The one in your picture is very small
...take no notice of me
Cathy.

Don't worry we are The ones in the supermarket are so lanky because they are grown in shadehouse conditions and have stretched to find light. Once you put them in a sunny window, they produce smaller pinnate fronds because they don't need to stretch out to reach light so eventually they look a little smaller . The seed connection to the nut eventually shrivells away and the nut can then be removed from the plant. The plants at the supermarket should be repotted urgently as those little pots are way too small for the palm's thick roots. As I'm sure you can tell coconut palms are my favourite plant and I have learnt lots about them over the years from books and mine and other people's experiences . Try one, you never know it may just grow for you, worse case scenario is it dies after a few months as a cheap attractive houseplant. They are weak when you buy them, but after a year or two of attention they become much more robust and start to flourish independently. Strangely I have not been that successful with these palms, because I do not have a very sunny window in my house at all, but the palm I bought in May seems to be doing OK outside in full sun, it has almost put out half a frond so far . A surprising amount of people have succeeded, especially Germans for some reason, they manage to keep them alive indoors all year round and it seems to me as though they are all gifted with green fingers

[Adam D]

A surprising amount of people have succeeded, especially Germans for some reason, it seems to me as though they are all gifted with green fingers

And much stronger sunshine than the UK

[lucienc]

A surprising amount of people have succeeded, especially Germans for some reason, it seems to me as though they are all gifted with green fingers

And much stronger sunshine than the UK

And warmer summers.

[Cathy]

A surprising amount of people have succeeded, especially Germans for some reason, it seems to me as though they are all gifted with green fingers

And much stronger sunshine than the UK

And warmer summers.

And sunnier window sills. (thanks DJ for the explanation)

And larger pots

[ElTel]

thanks devon jungle for posting

[carolpz]

It's one of those times when I'm glad to be proved wrong DJ. I'm off to buy one right now! Thanks for your post.