Buying Coconut Palms and growing them in Sydney

Brendan says...
Hi Laisla,
You may not believe this, but I've just poisoned about 60 small coconut trees, they were becoming a pest, sorry :-(

Laisla says...
Hi guys,
Unfortunately something off ebay probably wouldn't inspire confidence. In my experience, once the nuts have sent out a root they don't take well to bare rooting.

Brendon, how criminal! Coconut palms have all but dissapeared from Cairns, they were out of vogue when I lived there :(

trikus says...
coconuts will often have roots and a small sprout with no roots in the ground .. I have them sprouting om top of massive piles of old leaves and cyclone debris ..
tricky to grow well out of sub-tropics ..
expensive way to drink amanda ,when travelling Sulawesi, I always asked village boys to climb and get very young coconuts , the jelly ones are best, a few cents and they were happy

trikus says...
Dwarf nuts are very recalcitrant to sprout and a mate worked out an easy way to increase % , just by slicing off a bit just above the eyes .

Used to get coconut husks by the tandem trailer load , spread out , rough side up in big piles it takes approx 18 months to age and soften . Easy to dice up with a cANE KNIFE AND ADD TO BROMELIAD POTTING MEDIA ..

Another summer and the pile nearly is cocopeat , so soft you can crumble it in your hands .

John Mc says...
Stop looking, you won't find a fruiting coconut palm in sydney unless it's under a temperature controlled enclosure.
You can buy small known cv's through Daley's here:
http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/Dwarf-Coconut.htm

Good Luck

BJ says...
What type of dwarves did you get?

There are a few full sized coconut palms around Brisbane's west, where it gets cold - around what you've listed. Not sure about the dwarves though.

If you think it'll be too much work, I'd be happy to take on off your hands... ;)

nguyentran says...
go www.nationaltropicals.com.au you can get young dwarap coconut $39.99+$50 shipping to sydney.

snottiegobble says...
Amanda I now cook everything with coconut oil because they say it has no cholesterol, no transfat & rich in lauric acid. It has plenty of Vit E & other goodies , has a very high burn rate( yeah OK that suits me) & tastes great even raw straight out of the jar instead of other spreads. You can guess how good your skin is after using it for a while!
I wish I could grow coconuts for the oil, but really $82aus ( inc postage) is nothing for five 1 litre jars of BANABAN Fijian organically grown ,cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil is it?
You can buy less of course & there is a list of delightful coconut goodies also to choose from including Jigjig oil!
Guess what thats for! :)
Check out the mob in Burleigh Heads who import it www.naturepacific.com
They offer a very prompt service & also advocate the return of the poor Banaban people who were displaced from their island purely for SUPER PHOSPHATE mining!

Brendan says...
Hey trikus, is that you in the photo? Looks like a mate of mine?

snottiegobble says...
Come to think of it trikus, he does look a trifle pale for a tropo! :)

John Mc says...
My three dwarfs got through winter very nicely down here, and out in the open air. They're in bonzai bags and waiting till I get my polytunnel built. I'm hoping to make a start before next winter, fingers crossed, and the Mrs doesn't want anymore reno's done.

Laisla says...
Interesting to revisit this thread. JohnMC, you are an inspiration to us all. Last winter was one of the coldest, wettest in this part of NSW so you are doing well :)