I agree, coconut palms are great indoors. Actually they are one of my easier palms. Although, I do actually keep mine too dry. A few weeks ago the leaflets on mine were actually folded over because of how dry it was. But some water was all it needed to look normal again!

They are great palms that do well on neglect indoors and out.

I have a tall from hawaii and a dwarf from Florida and I agree, the coconut palm from Hawaii does MUCH better than the dwarf I got from Florida. They like being in pots more than dwarfs (like you said, pretty ironic), they are faster growing (thats not much of a surprise) and in my experience, they have much greener looking fronds and are better looking overall. But Dwarfs do have adult leaves at a smaller height so even if they dont like being potted as much as the talls do, they will be able to stay small enough to enjoy as a potted plant for at least 10 years from germination (in climates like mine where summers are warm, but they have to spend time indoors during the cold winters).

And I saw some great looking coconut palms indoors at the Orlando International Airport. They have apparently been there since the 1990s. Now they do get more sun and more room for their roots to grow than coconut palms inside the average home would get, but they do not have the benefit of going outside into the warm summer sun unlike coconut palms in an average home.

-Alex

From what I can see, I agree too. Especially seeing them outside most of the year over here in the dry hot west where humidity can be between 12-35% in summer. I think that people say they need humidity is more do to the fact they do better with humidity and because in drier conditions most people dont water properly.

My house is usually beteen 68-73f, I try to keep it about 71-72f to be on safe side. I do need to water my coconut palm soon as well.

I have only had one tall, but it never did make it through the shipping. All the dwarfs I have had never gave me a problem but I also tend to pot them up in huge containers :P Draw back is I also tend to have heavy soil. Sand isnt a good choice if you need to move a container palm alot. The containers break. Curious though, what soil do you have yours in andyandy?

I get alot more growth in winter than I thought I would get. The spear is coming up steadily. My palms also tend to keep their fronds a while. It might have something to do with maybe my extended growing season? Or warmer summer? It would be interersting to look into, but its hard to find someone who is growing one in similar climate to mine. Most people from Cali that have coconut palms are from SoCal. Much different than here; much warmer winter and longer growing season, but we warm up faster in spring and get a hotter summer.

- US_Marine

One of the things humidity does in a warm climate is keep the overnight temperatures up. I think that is a big reason why people insist it is importnat. It does allow them to grow faster. A lot of our hot summers are hot AND dry. We could have a day where it is 95 and then falls to 68 at night where in miami it will only fall to 80. This past July was closest we have come to that envirnment when the average TENMPERATUE was 78.2.

I think a nice coating of Wilt-pruf is also helpful to palms
that require/enjoy/benefit from humidity,once before bringing in
and when putting them outside to protect them from wind burn.

Sure it would help in a drier Cali(etc) type climate too.

Click for weather forecast

Thats warm night time temps. Usually the average lows for summer over here is in the low 60f's to mid 60f's. And we usually have much hotter days than that. Hmmmmmmm. Makes me wonder how many fronds per year do they grow in Florida? Over here, they can manage about 6 fronds. I imagine they should grow a little more than 2x that in Florida.

I dont have experience with wilt-pruf, so I dont know how effective it will be over here. I do know if its like cloud cover, it wont work in summer here, its much too hot. Come to think of it, I dont know if I have ever seen it over here. I have yet to find freeze-pruf as well. It might only be sold in the east and south. Home depot, lowes, osh, wal mart, k mart etc dont carry it. Local nurseries also dont seem to carry it. Coconut palms are pretty rare to find as well, and when you do find them they are small. Either that or people buy them fast.

- US_Marine

Thanks guys for the information. I just bought a couple Mayan dwarf coconut, and dwarf Samoan coconut. I will be germinating them in the spring. Keep up the info. for I will be checking it. Wish me luck.