What is the best way to care for coconut plants?

Botanical about coconut plants

The coconut palm or coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) belongs to the palm family. It is one of the oldest plants grown by humans. Mankind has cultivated the plants for at least 3,000 years.

The palm trees have a distinctive feature. Their trunk consists of undifferentiated cells that can theoretically divide indefinitely. The shoot axis grows unbranched in nature up to a height of 20 to 25 meters. There leaves and flowers form.

Coconut palms have no branches. The flowers grow like the leaves (fronds) directly on the trunk. Adult palms have leaves up to seven meters in length that weigh over ten kilograms.

From the age of six the flowers bloom Palm tree. The female flowers open two weeks after the male, which is why the stone fruits are usually created by cross-pollination. For more than 70 years, the palm trees have been bearing fruit in different stages of ripeness.

For the people in the tropics, coconut palms are of great importance. They use the wood of the trunks, the fibers of the fruit, the kernels and the "milk" in them. In Europe, the fibers are sought after as insulating material and the bract that surrounds the flowers is called "coconut leaf" after being lignified Floristry.

Botanical profile of coconut plants

characteristic	Note
Scientific name	Cocos nucifera
family	Palm trees
growth	slender trunk with tufts of leaves
Heyday	blooms from the 6th or 7. Year constantly
gender	Hermaphrodite, but dioecious 40 female and over 10,000 male flowers per inflorescence
pollination	Cross-pollination
Harvest time	constantly
fruit	round fibrous drupes Core edible

Demands of plants

The tropics are the home of plants. You have to take this into account. If the basic requirements are not right, it doesn't matter how you care for the plant, it dies or takes care of it.

• Choose a location with lots of sun.
• 12 hours a day with 1000 to 2000 lux are required.
• An ambient temperature of at least 20 degrees is necessary.
• Ensure high humidity of 70 to 80 percent.
• Palm soil or mixed with sand Garden soil is the optimal substrate.

How to best care for the palm

Caring for the coconut plant is unproblematic as long as it gets enough light and the air is humid. If the humidity is too low, you can compensate for it by spraying the leaves daily. It is better if you set up a humidifier for the plants. Ideally, the palm is in a glass house in which it is possible to ensure sufficient moisture without any problems.

Use lukewarm lime-free water for watering and spraying. In the summer, add a green plant fertilizer to the irrigation water every 14 days.

Maintenance checklist:

• Water generously with lukewarm water every day from May to September.
• If necessary, spray the leaves with water.
• Do not leave the roots in the water.
• Apply complete fertilizer every 14 days.
• Repot at most every three years.
• The top half of the nut must look out of the ground.

Wintering the coconut palm

Winter is a real challenge for the palm tree lover. The problem of how best to get the palm trees through the winter is difficult to solve. This is hardly possible without artificial light. Coconut plants need at least twelve hours of brightness of over 1,000 lux even in winter.

Room temperatures of 18 to 20 degrees are usually not a problem in modern, heated apartments. The problem is the high humidity, which the coconut palms need in order not to get brown leaf tips. In winter, there is a risk of mold on the walls when the air is as humid as palm trees like it to be. A Glasshouse is best suited.

The plants are in a dormant phase from October to April. Nevertheless, the earth must not dry out. It is usually sufficient to water once a week. Do not give any during this time fertilizer.

Caring for the coconut palm is not a problem. However, it is difficult to find a place where the air is sufficiently humid.