La Gringa is nuts for coconuts
Baby coconuts
We are excited! In another 6-9 months, we may have some cocos (coconuts). We planted two coconut palms about 3 years ago. Before that they lived in a couple of 5 gallon buckets for more than a year.The one palm is doing very well and has two fruiting branches. Both plants are supposed to be dwarf coconut palms. That is a good thing as I wouldn't relish the idea of climbing to the top of a palm tree to knock the coconuts out.
The other palm has had a problem forever with a black sooty mold. It's also infested with fire ants which makes it very painful to trim or try to spray it. As you can see from this photo, the fruiting branch shriveled up and died. :(I need to learn more about coconuts. Supposedly we have one each of green and yellow coconuts. I thought all coconuts were brown − that is the way they looked in the grocery store. What do I know about cocos?!
I love the way it looks like the bottom of the palm is wrapped in burlap. It looks so much like fabric and it is really tough, too. One thing I remember about coconuts is that they can live 80 to 100 years! Amazing, huh?
This photo will give you an idea of the size of the palm. The other one is to the left of the birdhouse and is about the same size.The coconut is the seed from which new plants are started. Usually the coconuts are just placed on the soil or just partially buried and left until the coconut splits open and the palm sprouts. I've heard that they are actually pretty easy to start, at least in this climate.
This photo is from May 2005 so you can see that they have grown quite a bit in only a little over two years.
4 comments:
Congrats on the cocos. And good news: remember hearing about how so many people die each year from getting hit by a falling coconut? Well, it looks like that may not be true. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020719.html
So go ahead and walk under that tree.
I was told to float them in water and the side that stays up should be planted that way.
Don't worry about one flower stem not doing well, because there will be lots more. I actually trim mine off at this stage because I get too many.
Up here the coco flowers are pollinated by little black bees. When the flowers open these little guys magically show up in swarms and there is a cloud of them at each stem. I don't know if the fire ants would drive off the bees so they can get the nectar for themselves
Great LG!
And btw you are also doing conservation work beacuse coconuts trees are kind of scarce now in Honduras beacause of "amarillamiento letal del cocotero"...deadly coconut yellowing? dont know the proper name in english, sorry.
If youd like to know more about this go to La Ceiba to the offices of FHIA, they have a big coconut nursery....Congrats LG
It's good to hear from you, LD. I'm going to have to make sure my dogs don't nap under the cocos just in case!
Tom, I'll try to remember to float it first if I ever plant one. We noticed a ton of bees around them today. What is a good number of stems to keep?
Daniel, I have read about the amarillamiento letal but I thought it was a specific kind of palm that it attacks....or is it all coconuts? I'll have to write you to find out about the FHIS office. Do they give advice to anyone?
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