How to care for coconut palms: watering, propagating and where to position them

Difficult but not impossible to look after, coconut palms will test your plant parenting skills.
Coconut palm
Alamy Stock Photo
George Hudson2 November 2021

The impossible houseplant or possibly not, Cocos nucifera or the coconut palm is a common sight in plant shops and garden centers. The tropical allure of fantastic green leaves emerging from a partly buried coconut husk are often short lived.

Keeping the coconut palm alive at home is a labour of love, and not for the faint of plant parenting heart.

How to care for coconut palms

The coconut palm reigns supreme in its native habitat around tropical Australia and the Philippines, and has been successfully exported across the world, introduced and growing freely across much of Central Africa and South America where the sun shines freely, and winter doesn’t mean grey skies and shorter days. It’s no surprise that the coconut palm hasn’t made a home for itself in the UK.

However, for less than £30, you can normally pick up a coconut palm seedling from your local plant shop. These palms, grown in perfect conditions, before being sold, can be kept alive at home, and here is how (for a while at least).

Essential to their success are 3 things: water (but not too much), light (think cactus), and humidity. In the wild coconut palms are the sprinters of the plant world. With access to water, light and heat they rapidly grow from seed (coconut) to tree. One coconut makes one palm tree.

This rapid growth rate is not something to forget about in a hurry. It’s easy to underwater your coconut palm if you allow the compost to dry out before watering again. This is because your young palm has only developed a few very thick roots. It’s important to keep the compost moist so the palm doesn’t dry out.

On the flip side, and somewhat counter intuitively, the roots must never be sat in water, as this could lead to them rotting. The best way to avoid this is by ensuring the pot has plenty of drainage holes, and the palm is growing in a free draining compost mix, similar to what you might use for cactus, 2 parts peat-free compost, to 1 part horticultural sand and 1 part grit.

Second only to watering is light. Coconut palms love light. And so the more light you can give it the better. A south facing window is ideal, anything less may see your palm struggle. In summer you can give it an extra light boost by gradually moving it outdoors over summer.

Humidity is key to keeping your amazing corrugated palm fronds looking their best. Keep the plant in space that is naturally humid, like a kitchen, place it with other plants and sit it over a tray of wet pebbles, creating a microclimate when the water evaporates. Not only will this keep the leaves looking good, but the higher humidity will also keep pests like red spider mite at bay.

How to propagate coconut palms

The Cocos nucifera can only be propagated from seed. It’s unlikely you’ll ever see your own coconut plant produce flowers and seeds in your front room, but you could try propagating a coconut yourself. Though it’s not something I’ve tried, I know you’d need a fresh whole (green) coconut, a sharp knife and somewhere very warm. A quick internet search reveals many videos on how to do this outside in the tropics as a guide.

When it’s time to repot your coconut, home grown or shop bought, remember that it needs free draining compost. Thick roots may make it hard to remove from its pot, don’t be afraid to cut these to free the palm, a little ‘root pruning’ will keep the eventual size of the plant in check.

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