Experiment: Growing Dwarf Coconut Palms in a Colder Climate | The Survival Gardener

Some months ago, I had an interesting idea.

What if we bought some dwarf coconut palms and grew them in pots with wheels on them?

We could put them on our south-facing front porch, then wheel them into the house on freezing nights!

The idea was running through my head for quite some time but I was unable to source any coconut palms up here in Lower Alabama, dwarf or otherwise.

The experiment had to wait until I could get to a place that sold them.

Last week, we took a trip down to South Florida for a wedding. While there, I met up with my sister-in-law, Lucy, who loves butterfly gardening. She knew of a big nursery where we could probably find some coconut palms, so she and I and a few of my crew took a trip down to Griffin road in Cooper City and visited the Florida Nursery Mart.

The staff was friendly, and they had a decent selection of tropical fruit trees – and, much to our joy, dwarf coconut palms!

The sheer usefulness of coconuts make them a worthwhile addition to the homestead.

My idea eight now is to get a wooden whiskey barrel and cut it in half, then screw wheels to the bottom of each half, then pot the coconut palms up in rolling half-barrel planters.

During most of the year the palms will be able to soak up the sun on the porch, then they can be easily rolled inside during frosts.

Dwarf Coconut Palms are supposed to produce nuts quite close to the ground and not get gigantic, so we’ll see how they work out. They’re also supposed to fruit quickly.

I’m excited. It’s possible we could be harvesting our own coconuts in just a couple of years.

After getting the plants (and sneakily buying a jabuticaba for Lucy to add to her yard), Lucy insisted on buying us some coffee to celebrate.

As for putting wheels on the pots, I hit the hardware store this week and was shocked to see how much the wheels cost, so I’ve decided to just use a hand truck to move them. Since they only need to make it in and out of the house occasionally, I will spend the extra work rather than the money.

Also… thanks for the good coffee, Lucy.

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