While you might not get an edible coconut from this palm, you can see it’s been grown from one – how cool is that! Cocos nucifera is a single-stemmed palm that is tall, elegant, and makes a slender statement plant in a sunny room.
In the wild it can grow up to 25 metres – you know those tropical islands you dream of, with coconut palms lining the white sandy beach… just like that. Grown in a pot in your home however, it won’t grow more than a metre or two if you give it the right conditions and look after it well. The size of the nursery pot you grow it in will limit how big the root ball can grow, and this has an effect on how big and tall the top growth can grow.
Growing a coconut palm as a houseplant is quite unusual, and because they like to live life on the hot and large side, they need very specific conditions to survive and thrive. This is because they’re a palm that truly likes tropical island life. Bear these conditions in mind when growing yours at home: full sun, warmth (it won’t tolerate temperatures lower than 15 degrees Celsius), feed (once a month) and water regularly throughout the growing season but less as winter creeps in and it’s colder and darker – your palm won’t be drinking up as much water from the soil.
Sap-sucking pests like mealy bug, red spider mite and thrips tend to be fond of palms, especially if the conditions are right – for instance, if the humidity is too high or too low. To prevent them from getting the upper hand, spray the tops and undersides of your coconut palm’s fronds with a natural bug control spray. This will help keep the leaves clean too, so that it can absorb as much light as possible. Always do this in the early morning or evening, when your palm isn’t being bathed by bright, direct sunlight, otherwise those gorgeous green leaves might get a bit scorched.
Did you know?
A lot of modern day houseplant composts and plant supports use the coarse fibre from coconut husks – otherwise a waste product from the coconut oil and water industries – to add texture and help with drainage. .
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