Growing Coconut Palms In The Desert

02.08.2011 - I have had a few people ask me about coconut palms in the Arizona/Nevada area. Do coconut palms grow in the desert? My answer is yes and no.

On one hand the coconut palm really needs warm temperatures. It thrives when the average daily high is over 70 degrees. While this is fine during many of the months in Arizona/Nevada/Southern California we do have colder winters. Think Hawaii, where it is warm and moist all year round. That is a perfect climate for coconut palms. Anything under 30 degrees is disaster for coconut palms. Add to it the days when the humidity can be as low as 5% and you'll end up with a very, very thirsty palm tree.

The other obstacle is the summer. While coconut palms can withstand even 100 MPH wind gusts they will do very poorly with burning hot, dry wind. Take a walk around your neighborhood and check out some of the queen palms your neighbors have. Many of them just look rather ragged. A queen palm is much more tolerant of our desert conditions than a coconut palm. That should give you an example of how much the coconut palm would suffer here.

If you, like me, are just too stubborn to look for an alternative (consider date palms, palmettos or even the pindo palm...much better suited for growing in the desert) here are my suggestions for attempting to grow a coconut palm in the desert:

1. Try to start it out in a pot so you can move the palm based on the season.
2. Fill the pot with at least 40% sand. The coconut palm loves moist, gritty soil.
3. In the winter, protect the palm from frost. Try to give it as much sun exposure as possible during the winter months.
4. In the summer, protect this palm from the hot, damaging winds, or you will have fronds that look like they've been in the deep fryer.
5. Palm fertilizer applied a couple of times a year will give it a bit of a boost.
6. Only prune dead/damaged/diseased fronds. Otherwise, leave them be. They help the palm get the nutrients it needs to thrive.

The key is you can grow just about anything in the desert provided you are willing to relocate it, protect it and pay a lot of attention to it. I've even managed to grow a Rainbow Eucalyptus here! If you aren't willing to make this a big project consider some other palm trees that love the desert conditions.