How to Plant Coconut in Texas
- 1). Obtain a coconut seed for planting. Coconuts sold in the grocery store lack a husk and aren't appropriate for sowing. Coconuts for planting are dubbed "seednuts" and the dry husk is tan in color. This ripe seednut is ready for planting and germination once you hear liquid after you shake it.
- 2). Fill a large container, with a diameter of at least 16 inches, with a potting soil comprised of equal parts sand and organic matter like compost, peat or commercially made potting mix. Tamp the soil down in the container with your hands so there is minimal compaction and shrinkage later after planting and watering. Fill the container so there is a 2- to 3-inch rim remaining above the soil line.
- 3). Burrow a hole in the center of the container with your hands. Make it large enough to house the large seednut. Place the seednut into the hole so that one-half of it is in the soil, the rest exposed to the air and light. Backfill any soil around the seednut and level the soil in the container.
- 4). Move the container to a sunny, warm location in a southern room with lots of windows or out onto the patio after danger of frost passes in early spring. For best germination, the temperatures need to be between 75 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and the container should receive at least 10 hours of direct sun daily.
- 5). Water the container soil as needed to maintain a moist environment. Depending on the variety of coconut, germination occurs in as little as four to six weeks or, as Floridata notes, expect the first signs of a green sprout emerging in two to three months.
- 6). Maintain the sunny location, warmth and moist soil as the seedling coconut grows. Slow at first, the pace of the seedling hastens as the roots grow.
- 7). Bring the container and palm indoors once temperatures in fall drop into the 40 to 50 degree range and overwinter the plant in a warm but sunny location in the house.
- 8). Sprinkle granular well-balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) onto the soil surface the following spring in March. Relocate the palm outdoors again in spring once nighttime temperatures don't drop below 50 degrees.