School Science Lessons
Coconut Project
Updated: 2008-07-30
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
See also: Interesting websites
Preface
Before teaching this project, discuss the content of the lessons with a field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and get advice on planting material, spacing between palms, the site for planting, approved mulch, composting, and control of pests and diseases. Use only the procedures, agricultural chemicals and insecticides recommended by the local field officer of the Ministry of Agriculture. If you cannot control insects by hand picking, ask the Ministry of Agriculture to recommend a chemical spray. All insect sprays are dangerous. Show the students how to use them safely. Wear protection so that you do not get the spray onto your hands and you do not breathe in the spray. Wash your hands well after using a spray. Keep the spray container in a safe place where students cannot get it. Spray on a day of no wind but if you must spray on a windy day, spray downwind. Make sure the spray does not blow on other people.
List of Topics
Note: In this document the coconut you see growing on a coconut palm is called a "fruit".
1.0 Introduction to the coconut project
2.0 Cultivars, coconut varieties
3.0 Leaves, phyllotaxis, life of a leaf
4.0 Stem, trunk
5.0 Roots
6.0 Flowers, inflorescence
7.0 Pollination and fertilization
8.0 Fruit growth and development
9.0 Germination
10.0 Collecting seed nuts (fruit) for planting
11.0 Propagation, pre-nursery and nursery
12.0 Transplanting
12.1 Field planting of seedlings
12.2 Transplanting seedlings in polybags
13.0 After-care of the seedling, diseases and pests
14.0 Harvesting
15.0 Making copra
16.0 Coconut products
19.2.1.11 Coconut oil
17.0 New ways to make coconut oil
18.0 Coconut terminology
Structure of the coconut palm
Roots
Stem
Leaves
Inflorescence, flowers
Seed and fruit
19 Intercropping
Names
20.0 Understanding the records
1.0 Introduction to the coconut project
1. The aim of the coconut project is to teach students how to grow the coconut well and produce a high yield of coconuts and copra per hectare, and per unit of labour.
2. Copra and virgin coconut oil are very important export crop commodities. Two kinds of growers make copra and coconut oil, the big foreign owned plantations and the small plantations owned by villagers. Plantations run by villagers may not produce as much as they could. The aim of this teaching unit is to show students how they can increase production in village plantations. They can only learn these things if they do them. You cannot teach this unit properly unless you provide many things for the students to see and do.
3. To teach this project you need the following:
1. A coconut plantation near the school. Ask the owners for permission to gather seed nuts from about one hectare of coconut palms.
2. A small sunny area in the school grounds where you can make a pre-nursery and a nursery. Palms must not shade this area. Build a small fence around the area to keep out horses, cattle or goats if they are near the school.
3. Build a copra drier that you can also adapt to drying for virgin oil production. The best kind of drier for your project is a small hot air drier. For a start you can use a sun drier but this document does not recommend it.
4. If you wish to raise some seedlings in polybags, get 40 bags from the Department of Agriculture.
4. Prepare to take students outside to see coconut palms that have 1. many fruits 2. only a few fruits, and 3. no fruits.
5. The coconut palm gives us food and drink, and copra and oil that you can sell for money. Some palms make many fruit, but other palms make only a few fruits. Some villages do not have enough high producing palms. These villages have areas overcrowded with too many palms. Some palms are yellow and sick and others are over-shaded. Poor quality palms will never produce many fruits. Very old palms produce fewer fruits. In this project you will learn how to grow coconuts palms that produce many fruits.
2.0 Coconut cultivars, coconut varieties
See diagram 53.2: Coconut varieties
1. A cultivar is a cultivated variety, i.e. a natural variety selected for agriculture. The natural home of the coconut is the coarse textured sandy soil near the beach, reached by king tides and tidal surges. The coconut needs a daily mean temperature well above 21oC and 120 hours per month of sunshine to grow to maturity and produce full rounded fruits.
2. The main varieties of coconuts are called tall palms, "Talls", and dwarf palms, "Dwarfs". Tall palms grow to 20 -30 m, have thicker trunks, larger crowns and bigger fruit. They flower 6-10 years after planting and produce nuts for 60 -70 years or longer. Tall palms have a big bole at the base of the trunk. They include the Solomon Islands Tall palm with about 25 to 30 leaves and green or brown nuts. The Rennell Island's Tall palm has the bottom of the trunk without a rounded bole but swells out at the bottom. It has a few very large nuts on each bunch. The "hundred nuts" variety has many small nuts on each bunch. Other tall palm varieties include the Rotuman Tall, Fiji Tall, Kiribati Tall, and Samoan Tall. The Tall palms are divided into two groups: 1. the "wild" tall palms that are still found on some remote islands and have angular fruits, up to 15 cm diameter and with a thick husk and shell, and 2. the "domesticated" tall palms that have a larger rounded fruit, up to 25 cm diameter and thinner husks caused by human selection that affects their breeding. Coconuts from both groups can float. Coconut "seed" is classified as "drift seed" and the coconut palm is classified as a "strand plant",  growing in colonies around the fringe of tropical beaches.
3. Dwarf palms have no bole at the base and the trunk is thinner. They grow to 8 -10 m. They flower three years after planting and produce nuts for 30 to 40 years. The leaf scars are close together on the trunk. They are self-pollinated, so if you find a dwarf palm bearing many fruit, these will be good for seed nuts because they have the same father and mother. The dwarf palms are divided into three groups: 1. the stumpy or Niu Leka Dwarf palm of the South Pacific that has small medium sized nuts used for drinking 2. the Village Dwarf palm of the Pacific villages that has small elongated yellowish fruit and 3. the Nias Dwarf palm from Indonesia and Malaysia with medium size fruit of distinct green, brown and orange colours. Dwarf palms are not used in plantations because the nuts are too small and the kernel is soft and difficult to separate from the shell.
4. Cross-breeding has developed many hybrids between tall and dwarf palms. Hybrids may be grown in plantations for high their production. The hybrids come from crossing of two different varieties, e.g. a tall palm father and a dwarf palm mother.
5. Visit coconut plantations or wild stands of coconuts near your school. Look for "Talls" and "Dwarfs", different kinds of "Talls", wild and domesticated "Talls".
6. With permission, collect coconuts from the different kinds of coconuts then draw and measure them.
3.0 Leaves, phyllotaxis, life of a leaf
See diagram 53.3: Leaf life
1. The first leaves produced by the seeding have a single vertical leaf blade (spear leaf) consisting of leaflets joined at the edges. The the first leaves are called entire. Later leaves have the lamina separated into leaflets. A call a leaf with all leaflets separated is called a frond, a pinnate frond. The palm bears the fronds at the top of the palm in a crown. Note when the first frond forms because this happens sooner in a dwarf, and is a way to identify tall and dwarf varieties. The parts of the frond are the leaf base, leaf stalk (petiole), mid rib (rachis) and leaflets (pinnae). Each side of a frond has about 100 leaflets. The bottom of the frond stalk has a broad leaf base with a cushion on the underside connected to the trunk and a keel or thick body to strengthen it. The leaf stalk is grooved on the upper surface. Bits of fibre stick to each side of the leaf base to form a fibrous sheath. To conserve water, leaves have a waxy leaf surface and cuticle.
2. The arrangement of fronds on the trunk reduces the shading of lower fronds by fronds above, so that each frond shares the sunlight and no frond is completely shaded. Each frond is arranged on the trunk at an angle of 140o from the next in age above and below it. The sequence around the circle of the trunk is as follows: 1. (0o), 2. (140o), 3. (280o), 4. (420o, i.e. 360o + 60o), 5. (560o, i.e. 360o + 200o), 6. (700o, i.e. 720o- 20o). Starting from one frond and looking upwards, the next five will make two turns around the trunk and the fifth leaf will be 20o from being directly above the frond where you started looking. This arrangement is easier to see by looking at the leaf scars on the trunk. Count the total number of fronds because you can relate this to the general health of the coconut palm and the number of fruit it can produce. The arrangement of fronds on a stem is called phyllotaxy, phyllotaxis.
3. The frond starts as a tiny lump in the bud of the palm. It comes out a vertical "spear" (fibrous leaf sheath) at the top of the palm after about 20 months. The flower bunch, inflorescence, appears after about another 5 months in the axils of the leaves. After about another year, a little longer in a cool season, the fruits are ripe and fall off. The total life time of the frond is about 2 years. As the frond grows older, especially on palms that bear many fruits, it bends down through an angle of about 160o before it drops off. Palms make a new frond every 22 to 30 days. Healthy coconut palms may make 14 to 17 fronds in a year. A typical mature coconut palm has about 30 leaves at any one time. As the young palm develops the fronds become longer and quicker to emerge so that after 5 years the length is 7 m in tall palms and 3 m to 5 m in dwarf palms. The leaves are attached to the top of the stem in a terminal crown of 25-30 leaves surrounding the terminal bud.
4. Count the leaflets on each side of the frond.
5. Stand to one side of a palm to do this. Stand under a tall palm. Look up at the arrangements of the leaves. To count the number of leaves on a coconut palm, stand next to the oldest leaf near the ground and look up to see the number of fronds almost directly above it, in a right hand or left hand spiral. So you have counted every 6th frond. Note that on older palms the lower fronds hug the trunks and do not touch the upper fronds that often hang farther out and curve down.
6. Count the number of fronds and number of nuts fruit on different palms. Note whether palms with more fronds have more fruit. Measure the length of the frond and the maximum length of the leaflets.
4.0 Stem, trunk
See diagram 53.4: Trunk
1. In tall varieties, e.g. Solomon Islands Tall palms, the bottom of the trunk swells out to form the bole. A big bole is good because this is where the roots come out and so it gives a broad grip on the soil. The bole should not be on top of the soil so bury it by putting the seedling in a hole deep enough for the soil to cover the nut. The dwarf palm does not form a bole so the diameter is much the same along its trunk. Their narrow diameter at soil level means that their grip of the soil is less secure than with a tall palm. Mature dwarf palms have about half the trunk height of tall palms of the same age. Dwarf palms have shorter fronds and so a smaller crown. The trunk is usually curved, probably a result of response to light.
2. Leaf scars occur where the leaf base and attached fibrous sheath clasp the trunk, so the scars come from detached leaf sheaths. The leaf base partially encircles the trunk. The attached fibrous sheath encircles the trunk. The thick leaf base of the leaf stalk (petiole) makes the thicker part of the leaf scar. The fibrous sheath, once joined to the sides of the leaf stalk at the leaf base, forms a circle around the trunk and makes the thinner part of the leaf scar. You can examine the scars on the trunk to learn much about the life of the coconut palm. Leaf scars are far apart if the palm grew fast, especially in the early period before fruit production. Leaf scars are close together in dwarf palm varieties, e.g. the Malayan dwarf palm, or if the tall palm is growing in bad soil or has experienced droughts. The scars get closer together as the palm grows older.
4. You may find steps cut into the trunk and marks made by fire or a bush knife. The trunk of a mature tall palm is flexible enough during strong winds to bend without breaking but the trunk of a dwarf palm may snap. The trunk may have a bend in it from from being blown over by a strong wind and then growing straight again.
5. The fronds make 14 to 17 new scars every year so to find the age of a coconut palm, count all the scars on the trunk and divide by 14 to 17.
6. The trunk grows to about 20 m high in 50 years and may reach above 30 metres in 80 years. In older coconuts producing many nuts, the internodes, gaps between the scars, become shorter to give more plant nutrients and energy to the nuts. So the bases of the upper fronds push outwards on the leaves those older fronds below forcing them to "rotate" downwards progressively with age resulting in a spherical shaped crown. At the end of the palm's life the trunk narrows to a "pencil point". Tall palm trunks standing bare with no crown may be caused by lightning strike or the result of health decline due to age. The trunks of tall palms grown closest to the ocean lean out towards the ocean because the light reflecting off the surface of the ocean attracts the plant. The lean is strongest when the coastline is close to a north south direction.
7. Examine the leaf scars on the trunks of different palms to learn about the life of these palms. Examine a scar where a fruit bunch was joined to the top of the leaf scar. Count the frond leaf scars left by of one year's growth.
5.0 Roots
See diagram 53.5: Root
1. The young coconut first has a group of roots 10 mm diameter growing from a base below the growing bud. Later an inverted cone shape of roots forms. At this stage the coconut palm can be blown over but at 6 years 12 mm diameter roots radiate out from the periphery of the trunk base. These roots may branch to form smaller secondary and tertiary roots. Coconut palm roots do not have root hairs.
2. Most of the roots are in the top 90 to 120 cm of soil. Sometimes the wind or the tide removes sand away from around the base of the palm and then you can see some roots.
3. The main roots are up to 12 mm thick, strong and woody except close to the growing end that is white or cream in colour. As a root continues to grow at the tip for several years, you can see a sequence of age and appearance along its length starting from the pale tip through reddish colour, then brown, then dark brown. The palm continuously makes main roots. As old roots die, new roots grow out from the bole, but they live a long time and some may be 50 years old. Each main root has a pointed root cap about 1 cm long. Behind the root cap is about 100 mm of root that can absorb water, but farther back the outside becomes hard and it does not absorb water. The roots are adventitious roots and may grow to a length of 6 metres. There is no tap root. The roots cannot penetrate compacted subsoil and rot easily if waterlogged for a long time
4. Just beneath the soil surface both large and small roots develop small whitish lumps, especially if the soil is really wet. These soft lumps are special "breathing" organs, pneumathodes, to help air enter the roots when they are not flooded.
5. Many thinner lateral roots branch out from the main roots. Short rootlets grow out from the lateral roots.
6. Use a spade to uncover some main roots or dig up a seedling. Note the colour of the main roots. Look for small white lumps. Find the end of a main root to see the root cap. Find some lateral roots and rootlets.
6.0 Flowers, inflorescence
See diagram 53.6.1: Sheath and spadix | See diagram 53.6.2: Male flower and female flower
1. Tall palms usually cross-breed but dwarf palms usually in-breed so tall palms have greater genetic diversity than dwarf palms. Cross-breeding depends on whether male and female flowers on the same branch are active simultaneously. Pollen may be shaken from the male flower to the female flower or may be carried by the wind or insects.
2. In ideal conditions, dwarf palms, e.g. Malayan dwarf palm, may start to make flowers when they are only three years old, or five years where there is a long dry season, but tall palms may take three years longer and may not make flowers until five to ten years after transplanting.
3. Each year about twelve bunches (inflorescences), form in each leaf axil at the base of each frond with many male flowers on the upper section of the branch and few female flowers on the lower section of the branch. All the flower bunches on one palm will always hang out of the same side of the leaf stalk, either right or left. A spear-like green tube or sheath called a spathe (modified leaves) encloses the flower bunch. It takes a long time to make a flower bunch. When it is 2 years old and developing but not visible, the spathe emerges in the frond axil and splits, releasing the flower bunch. Each flower bunch has a central stalk with many side branches. On each side branch are a few female flowers at the base and many male flowers on the upper part.
4. The newest flower bunch is associated with the frond that has reached the 8th to 10th position down from the youngest emerging leaf.
5. The male flower has a perianth (sepals and petals) in two whorls of three. Inside each male flower are six stamens that make the pollen. A honey gland attracts insects. The male flowers at the tips of the flower bunch branches open first and shed their pollen followed by male flowers on the lower sections over the next 3 weeks.
6. The female flowers are much larger than the male flowers. You see them as 2-3 cm diameter knobs close to the near end of the lower branches of the flower bunch. Most of this size is from the three sepals that are very thick and woody, wrapped around the fleshy flower within. If you cut these knobs away, you can see the small nut-shaped ovary inside. At first you see only the sepals. The inner flower expands to expose its tip shaped like a cone on which three stigmas separate and exude a sugary sap that stimulates pollen to germinate and extend the pollen tube down into the ovary.
7. Each inflorescence bears only a few female flowers because most fall off in the first two months. So each inflorescence bears 3 to 6 fruits to maturity. You find them with a pair of male flowers at the base of the branches. Most of the male flowers are borne singly or in pairs towards the branch tips. As the flowers contain nectaries and are sweet scented, they may attract insects for pollination, e.g. flies and honey bees. Coconut honey is found in some places. However, the pollen is light and dry, so wind pollination may also occur. The male flowers mature and wither before the female flowers become receptive, a condition called protandry, so the male flowers in the same inflorescence cannot pollinate the female flowers. This arrangement ensures cross pollination between different palms.
8. Use coconut flowers and a sharp knife to examine a young flower bunch, inflorescence.
9. Open some male flowers to find the 6 stamens. Count the stamens in one flower.
10. Examine a young female flower and an older flower from another flower bunch to see the opened stigmas.
11. Cut away the wooden sepals and petals from a female flower to see the nut-shaped ovary inside. Be careful! You will need to use a sharp knife.
12. Cut across the ovary to see the 3 ovules inside. Only one ovule is fertilized and becomes a young plant, embryo, seen in a socket in the kernel.
7.0 Pollination and fertilization
See diagram 53.7: Fruit growth ("nut growth")
1. In tall palm varieties the male flowers open and shed their pollen before the female flowers open. So pollen from another palm must be available to pollinate the female flowers.
2. Some pollen may be carried to a female flower by the wind or insects, e.g. flies, wasps and honey bees.
3. Insects that carry the pollen do not fly very far, so if you pick up a nut under a mother palm, the father, the source of the pollen that fertilized the mother palm, probably will be another nearby palm. Do not gather seed nuts from under one good mother palm if poor bearing palms surround it. Try to find a group of high bearing palms and gather some seed nuts from this place, but be careful not to select mother palms only from areas of better soil.
4. After the male flowers have shed all the pollen, the female flowers become "pollen ready". The pollen is carried to the female flowers by falling from the male flowers if a dwarf palm or carried by insects or wind if a tall palm. The female flowers of isolated tall palms may not receive any pollen because the time for pollen shedding and the time for being pollen ready are different. However most dwarf palms self-pollinate because the timing of the male and female active phases overlap. 5. When the pollen is carried to a female flower and it lands on the stigma, it germinates in the sugary liquid there and extends its pollen tube down to enter the egg inside the ovary of the female flower. There it transfers DNA to the egg that merges with the DNA of the egg. You call this fertilization. When pollen fertilizes a female flower, it can then grow into a fruit that has an embryo with the DNA from both parents. It takes about a year for the fruit to grow.
6. Some young fruits fall off the flower bunch while they are still small. You call this "button shedding". This may happen because an insect called the "nut fall" bug puts marks on the small button by sucking out some sap.
7. Palms of the Tall type usually need pollen from another tree. If not getting any fruit to set on a solitary palm, e.g. in a home backyard, monitor the female flowers on the active flower bunch (inflorescence) until you see that the flowers are receptive to pollen. Then take from another palm a branch of an inflorescence which is shedding pollen and shake it close to the female flowers on your palm to achieve pollination. Commercial source of coconut pollen are not available. The Dwarf type of palm self-pollinates as it still sheds pollen when the female flowers are ready.
8. See "The coconut odyssey: the bounteous possibilities of the tree of life", by Foale, Mike A., Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, Australia, 2003. On page 47 is a photo of a coconut inflorescence showing the knob-like female flowers. It is only when all the male flowers have been shed and the female flowers have increased in size and begin secreting "honey dew", that the pollination can be done.
8.0 Fruit, "coconut, nut", growth of the fruit
See diagram 53.7: Fruit ("nuts")
1. The thick low density husk absorbs water very slowly so it allows the coconut fruit to float for up to 4 months in saltwater and still germinate on dry land. The husk also acts as a cushion to protect the seed if the coconut falls on rocks. The coconut fruit develops for 12 months and becomes a mature seed when the husk dries.
2. The mature fruit of the coconut palm is a 3 sided fibrous dry drupe. The round "coconut" sold in shops is a dehusked fruit. It consists of the coconut milk, and "meat" (kernel or endosperm) and hard stony shell (endocarp) that encloses the seed. The reddish brown fibre (mesocarp or husk) and outer smooth skin, rind (exocarp) have been removed. When a seed germinates "in the wild" on the upper beach sand, the kernel sustains growth until the roots can grow downs to find freshwater below the sand. The new shoot can grow up through the husk and develop leaves that capture energy through exposure to the light. The whole fruit has two ends, the stalk end and the outer end. The stalk end has a stalk scar, hilum, where it was attached to the bunch. Some nuts are round, but most nuts of tall palm coconuts have 3 sides defined by three more-or-less prominent ridges along the length of the fruit. You call the side flatter and broader than the other sides the broad side. The stalk scar is usually closer to the broad side than to the other sides.
3. Fruit development goes through several stages. After 6 months it has reached its full size but contains no kernel (meat), just a cloudy solution. A nut with internal diameter 100 mm contains 25 mL of "nut water" when the kernel has not yet developed. The "drinking coconuts" taste best between 6 and 9 months old. At about 8 months the kernel appears first as a soft jelly on the inside of the shell. The kernel progressively hardens through a rubber texture at 10 months to become solid and crisp at 12 months. It ranges in thickness from 9 to 15 mm depending on variety and soil fertility. You can snap a piece of it with our fingers. During maturity the fruit loses water by evaporation through the shell leaving an airspace that you can detect by shaking the coconut and listening for a "sloshing" sound. As the fruits mature, the coconut water tastes sweeter because it becomes more concentrated. The fruit takes 12 -13 months to mature and weighs 1.2 to 2.0 kg. The mature fruit contains by weight 36% husk, 12% shell, 28% "meat" endosperm and 25% water.
4. You will need 6 ripe fruit and a bush knife. Husk one fruit. See the 3 "eyes" (germination pores) of the nut. Find the embryo beneath the one "soft" eye.
5. Small ridges divide the inner nut into 3 parts. One part is wider than the others. The "active eye" where the seedling grows out is the eye in the widest part of the nut.
6. The location of the nut inside the husk place the active eye lies closest to the broad side of the husk. Remove the husk from the stalk end of a nut only so that you can confirm the position of the active eye to be closest to the broad side of the husk. This is important because if you plant a seed nut in the pre-nursery broad side up, the seedling shoot has the shortest distance to push through the husk when it germinates.
7. Cut another nut lengthwise. Note whether the inner nut is closest to the stalk end or the outer end of the husk. The stalk scar is closest to the broad side of the nut.
8. Draw an end view of an inner nut to show the 3 eyes and the 3 ridges.
9. Draw an end view of a fruit partly husked to show that the active eye is closest to the broad side of the husk.
9.0 Germination
See diagram 53.9: Germination
1. Germination occurs when the shoot comes out of the active eye. Roots form on its lower side. A tough narrow "beak" forces it way upwards through the husk and emerges 4 to 6 weeks later. During this period you cannot see the growing shoot inside the husk. A dehusked nut can germinate in a sealed plastic bag containing water that provides a humid atmosphere.
2. The embryo plant grows into the inside of the nut to make an organ of spongy tissue called the haustorium ("apple" or "egg") that takes about 4 months to expand to almost fill the cavity of the nut, except in very large nuts. The haustorium contacts the entire inner surface of the kernel in all but the biggest nuts, absorbs the coconut water and releases enzymes to digest the nutrients in the kernel. The haustorium conducts nutrients from kernel to the seedling during the 3 months between germination and the emergence of the first green leaf.
3. Roots grow down through the husk and into the soil. Side (branching) roots begin to grow out from the main roots and extend into the bulk of the husk. The fibres and spongy pith of the husk can hold enough water to give the plant some water until the roots can find water upon extending into the soil.
4. Visit the pre-nursery one week after planting and every week after this first visit. As shoots begin to emerge, transfer these coconuts to the main nursery in weekly batches.
5. To increase speed of germination, slice the outer "skin" from the lower side of each seed-nut and remove a small patch above the active eye.
6. You will need some seed-nuts that have just germinated. Use a knife or an axe to cut these open carefully. Try to cut through the place where the shoot is coming through the eye. The embryo is beneath the soft eye at the top of the nut. There is no embryo under the two blind eyes.
7. Remove the covering of leaves. Examine the nuts for signs of germination, i.e. lift the nuts to see if any roots are coming out. Then water the nuts again.
8. Examine the seed-nuts every day. Organize a competition for who can find the first germinated seed-nut!
9. Keep a record of dates of early germination.
10. When any seed-nuts have germinated, lift them and plant them in the nursery. Put the earliest to germinate at one end of the nursery so you will have a sequence in the nursery of earliest to germinate to latest to germinate.
10.0 Collecting seed nuts (fruit) for planting
1. Tall palm seed-nuts are cross pollinated. The mother of a nut is the palm it falls from, but the father is another palm close to it. So the place to gather good seed nuts is a place where you find many good palms growing close together. Do not gather seed nuts from a high bearing coconut palm if this palm has many poor bearing palms near it.
2. Find a place to collect seed nuts where many good palms grow close together. Remember that high production because of favourable soil will not be passed on to the progeny of those palms.
3. Pick up every nut you can find. You do not know the age of these nuts lying under the palms, so use them just to make copra but do not use them for your coconut project.
4. Two weeks later, go back to the same place and pick up the nuts which fell since you were there last. Now you know the age of these nuts for none are more than 2 weeks old. Take these nuts to your coconut project.
5. Examine the collected nuts. Shake every nut and listen for a sloshing sound. If you cannot hear a sloshing sound, discard this nut because lack of nut water means that it will not germinate.
6. Discard any nuts that are really small or misshapen because of damage by insects. Reject about 3 or 4 nuts of each 30 nuts collected, i.e. 10%.
7. Also you should ask about getting improved selected seed nuts from the Department of Agriculture. Large nuts are easier to process for kernel extraction but are not an indication of high yields.
11.0 Propagation, pre-nursery and nursery
See diagram 53.11.1: Pre-nursery | See diagram 53.11.2: Nursery
1. You use the pre-nursery to identify the early germinating seed-nuts. They are the best nuts because they grow into palms that begin to bear many nuts quickly.
2. The reason for having a nursery is to tell which are the strongest seedlings. The seedlings stay in the nursery until you plant them out. You will need at least 50% more nuts than you intend to plant in the field to allow for selection of the best seedlings.
3. Choose a place for a pre-nursery and nursery that is sunny, has no shade from big trees nearby, has deep loose sandy or loam soil, and is about 6 m long and 2 m wide. Do not use rocky or clay soil. Put pegs at the corners of the pre-nursery. Make planting lines about 90 cm apart then make shallow grooves in the soil following the planting lines to hold the nuts in place. Fence the nursery to prevent damage by horses, cattle, pigs, goats or coconut crabs, Birgus latro. Dig the fencing 10 cm into the soil.
4. After collecting the nuts, put them in the pre-nursery without delay. Trim the seed nuts by cutting away some hard skin, exocarp, over the germ pore, soft eye. Lay the coconuts seed-nuts broad side up on their sides and close together. Cover with palm fronds to keep the coconuts moist. Do not roll over the nut during the stage of hidden germination when the roots and shoots are growing through the husk because they will take longer to emerge. For polybag planting, stand the coconuts upright, close together and keep them in the pre-nursery until the 2-leaf stage when they are ready for planting in the polybags. Check the coconuts each week and lift the sprouted nuts to the nursery and plant them there. If any seed nuts have not germinated after 3 months use them for making copra.
5. If you have a ground-based nursery make a small hole in the ground soil to hold each germinated nut. Plant them about 60 cm apart. Seedlings in polybags can be put side by side. Gather leaves and grass and make a thick cover of mulch on the soil all around planted nuts. Take seedlings in polybags to the nursery as soon as they germinate. Cut off the roots growing outside the polybag to increase root development within the polybag.
6. Put the earliest germinating nuts together at one end of the nursery. Put slow germinating nuts in another place. Cover the nuts with layers of dead coconut leaves or other plant material, and keep them watered when the weather is dry.
7. If you use polybags, put one bag inside another in pairs. Fill each double bag with soil up to 10 cm from the top to half submerge the nut in the potting soil. Cut the tops off some nuts and plant them vertically in the bags. Cover the top of the bags with leaves or grass mulch. Make holes in the bags on the sides near the bottom.
8. Water the nuts and keep them watered regularly.
12.0 Transplanting
See diagram 53.12.1: Planting coconuta | See diagram 53.12.2: Polybag planting | See diagram 53.12.3: Polybags | See diagram 53.12.4: Marking out
1. Transplanting means digging up a seedling and planting it in another place. Usually some roots are broken. When the roots are broken, the seedlings suffer shock and grow more slowly. Coconuts are best transplanted in early summer just before the wet season.
2. You can avoid transplanting shock by growing seedlings in black plastic bags called polybags that are usually available from the Department of Agriculture. Seed-nuts may not fit easily into these plastic bags if you lay them on their sides, but you can trim off part of the husk to make them fit. You could plant them vertically in the polybag with the stalk end up. However, in this position the nut water is no longer in direct contact with the embryo when the embryo extends within the nut at germination. A nut really has its own irrigation system with the nut water keeping the embryo wet. To speed up germination by letting rain easily enter the husk and wet the active eye, cut a slice of husk off the top or stalk end of the nut. Also, to help the roots to emerge from the underside of the husk, cut away the thin tough outer layer. Space the seedlings about 60 cm apart so you can dig up most of the roots of a seedling without hurting the next seedling. Use a fork to lift out most of the roots without breaking them.
3. Before transplanting you must clear the area of all bush and cut down old coconut palms. Do this if you can only clear a small area for a few seedlings. Do not plant seedlings under old palms because they will take longer to bear nuts fruit than if planted in the open. Clearing must be done to grow strong early bearing palms but you will need to work hard to keep the weeds down until the young palms provide good shade. It may take a long time to do the clearing properly.
4. Choose a place that has well drained good soil in a sunny place. Do not plant in swampy soil.
5. The depth to dig the holes depends on the kind of soil and the level of the groundwater. In deep loose soil the hole can be one metre deep and fill back to 50 cm with surface soil and organic matter. However, if you find water within 50 cm of the surface, the hole can only be about 60 cm deep.
6. Do not try to plant too many seedlings. Planting only 4 to 6 seedlings in the first lesson is better because you can make sure that no damage to the roots of the seedling occurs. The seedling is ready for transplantation after 10 to 12 months since germination when it has about 8 leaves and the kernel is nearly exhausted. Trim the roots back to allow new roots to appear during the wet season. The diagram shows transplanting of seedlings with only 4 -5 leaves so they are about 5 months old so they are too early to transplant in most places.
7. Seedlings must show signs of strong, vigorous growth. You already know which nuts were the first to germinate. Now you must decide which of the earliest to germinate are suitable for planting in the field. Select the strongest seedlings that will grow quickly and bear nuts sooner. The strongest seedlings will have thick straight stems and many broad leaves that soon split into leaflets.
12.1 Field planting of seedlings
See also 6.9.14 Composting
1. Make a clear space for the seedlings.
2. Mark out places for the planting holes. Use string or strong fishing line about 7650 cm long. Tie a knot every 8 m. Stretch out the line in a North South direction along one side of the planting area. Put a peg in the soil next to each knot. Mark out the second row of pegs. Go to the first two pegs in the first row. Hold the first and third knots over the top of the two pegs. Pull out the line sideways and put a peg under the second knot. Do this again until you have marked out the second row of pegs. Then all the palms will be 8 m apart within each row, and between the rows on a triangular pattern.
3. Dig the planting holes deep enough to allow one or two layers of husks and some topsoil at the bottom. The top of the seedling nut must be about 10 cm below the surface of the soil.
4. Put layers of husks at the bottom of the hole, with cups broken and facing up. Put good soil on top of these layers. Add potash or mixed fertilizer or ashes from the fireplace at your home. Add washed coral sand if the soil is heavy, sticky.
5. Drive a stake into the hole so you can tie the seedling to it.
6. Discard seedlings that have thin twisted stems and few narrow leaves.
7. Count the leaves on seedlings. Note which seedlings are the first to have 5 leaves. Note which seedlings are the best shape and look the strongest. Plant only the best seedlings. Plant the seedling so that the top of the nut is about 10 cm below the soil surface. Put soil around the nut but do not cover the collar of the stem. Soil is added to the hole later as the stem grows in thickness.
8. If the coconuts need trace elements, cut a small square hole in the top of the husk of the nut. Put in half a teaspoon full of the mixture that should contain manganese and iron. Then put the piece of husk back into the small hole.
9. Put good soil around the seedling, but not above the top of the nut.
10. Cover the planting hole with dead leaves or other mulch.
12.2 Transplanting seedlings in polybags
1. Dig a hole just big enough for the polybag to fit in it. Do not make it too wide. Make it deep enough so that the bottom of the seedling stems will be 12 cm below the soil surface.
2. At the bottom of the hole put some husks with cups facing up, as for bare root seedlings above.
3. Cut off the bottom of the polybags. Carefully lower the bag and seedling in its double bag into the hole. Cut down the side of the polybags and pull them out. You may be able just to pull the bags up over the leaves without cutting.
4. Cut a small hole in the husk of the nut and put in trace element mixture if they need that.
5. Pack soil into the space between the seedling and the hole made for it, and then water the seedling.
13.0 After-care of the seedling, diseases and pest
See diagram: 53.9 Seedlings | See diagram 53.12.4: Drip circle
Be prepared to see strong and weak seedlings.
1. Good and bad breeds of coconuts
Some coconuts are from a good breed so they always produce many nuts but other palms may be from a poor breed and not carry many nuts. You use good breeds of seed nuts so that the palms will bear well. So in the first few years of a new planting you should replace damaged or lost plants as soon as possible with good breeds. The coconut palm can live for 100 years although its peak production is between 15 to 30 years after which production declines. So you must replace older palms with new palms of varieties that suited the local area. Plantations using dwarf palm X tall palm hybrids must replace them earlier than when using only tall palms. 2. Climate
1. Sunlight is the greatest need of a coconut palm. A shaded coconut palm always loses some production. Some palms in an overcrowded forest may never bear any nuts. Cut down older unproductive palms that may be keeping the sunlight from the young palms.
2. A mean temperature 25oC to 28oC is best because cool seasonal weather reduces growth.
3. A good water supply is essential because coconuts need more than 2000 mm rainfall per year, evenly distributed throughout the year without a big dry season. They grow well if their roots can access ground water, especially in coastal areas where the soils may be deep and sandy and become dry between periods of rain.
 Drought reduces growth of the palm. A mature coconut palm can take up 20 litres of water each day. Coconuts need high humidity for the fruit to mature.
3. Fertile soil, soil deficiencies
Coconuts grow well in aerated porous soils on coasts with is plenty of groundwater. They can live in slightly salty soils but some water must flow through the root zone. They can grow well in soils with pH 5 to 8. Coconuts do not grow well if the soil water becomes permanently salty. Give the seedlings some potash fertilizer or farmyard manure and perhaps trace elements if the pH is greater than 8.0. Add fertilizer to the soil in the drip circle. Soil deficiency of sulfur, potassium (potash) and even nitrogen may lower yield without being noticed, so ask the Department of Agriculture to do a chemical analysis of samples of leaves and coconut water. Coconuts may also need very small amounts of trace elements, e.g. iron, manganese, zinc boron and copper. This is why some people bury bits of old rusty iron near the palms to supply iron. For example, one Department of Agriculture recommends applying 15 g muriate of potash (potassium chloride) and 7 g sulfate of ammonia (ammonium sulfate) to the seedling 3 months after planting in the polybag. Then repeat this treatment every 3 months in the nursery but use much larger amounts in the field if potassium is deficient. In locations far from the coast palms may respond to an application of salt because they need much chlorine.
4. Weeds and weed control
Keep a clear area 2 m wide around each seedling by ring weeding and brushing the interlines every 3 months. Cut out any climbing weeds growing close to the palms. Put this material as mulch around the young seedlings. Never use fire in clearing around coconuts. Sow cover crops, e.g. Calopogonium, Centrosema, Pueraria, or sow as a mixture. Do not plough nearer than 2 m to the palms to avoid damage to the roots. You do not recommend ploughing unless intercrops are being grown because it increases the loss of soil organic matter. Weeds and under storey vegetation compete for water and nutrients so you should clear them by hand or by use grazing cattle to control them. Large trees nearby compete for sunlight. However, cattle grazing under coconuts may not get enough to eat for commercial success. Some people successfully grow cocoa under coconuts. Other people grow annual crops, catch crops, intercrops, e.g. sweet potato.
5. Disease and pests risks
Ask the Department of Agriculture for advice about control of local diseases and pests.
1. Coconut bud rot, caused by fungus Phytophthora palmivora in certain locations around the world, and various yellowing diseases, cause eventual death of the central bud.  Also the cinnamon fungus, Phytophthora cinnamomii, attacks the roots. Strict crop hygiene is the best way to control these diseases - remove and burn all infected palms. These diseases are sometimes confused with the effects of lightning strike that can usually be identified because a group of palms dies surrounded by healthy palms.
2. Lethal yellows disease caused by a mycoplasma occurs mainly in the Caribbean and Central America. A mycoplasma is a molecular entity larger than a virus but lacking a cell wall. Symptoms include fruit drop, blackened inflorescence, and yellowing then death of older leaves. Leaf hopper bugs probably carry the disease. A similar disease occurs in west and east Africa and Indonesia after damage due to bad weather. The similar disease called cadang-cadang ("dying-dying") in the Philippines is also lethal like Lethal Yellowing. A viroid produces yellow spots on the leaves and slowly kills the palm. A viroid is very small foreign molecule.
3. Rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros, is a large brown black beetle, up to 5 cm long, with a horn on its head. The adult beetle burrows into the terminal bud and may kill young palms because the palm has only one vegetative bud. The beetle lays eggs in rotting coconut logs. A related beetle, Scapanes australis, is found in rainforest fringes in Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. It lays eggs in any decaying plant material, so do not use compost without the agreement of the Department of Agriculture because it may not allow the use of mulch in gardens because these beetles may breed in it. Control these beetles by keeping the ground clear of dead and dying trees and piles of decomposing plant material. Ask the Department of Agriculture for advice on control of this beetle.
4. Palm Weevils, e.g. Rhynchophorus bilineatus, and R. ferrugineus, lay eggs in damaged parts of the upper trunk palm damaged where the Rhinoceros beetle has already burrowed or wind damage is present. The larvae, about 3.5 cm long, burrow into the crown of young palms to complete their life cycle there. They stay there and multiply until they kill the palm. You should try to prevent or protect wounds that act as entry sites for this weevil.
5. Plant bugs, e.g. Amblypelta cocophaga, feed on the flowers and decrease the number of fruits. Some sucking bugs can cause nut fall, but you can control them with green ants (green tree ants, sugar ants, red weaver ants, red ants, "kurakum ants", keregga, Oecophylla smaragdina). Similarly, the coconut scale, Aspidiotus destructor, attaches to the under surface of the leaflets and kills patches of tissue by sucking out the cell contents. You can control it with spotted ladybird beetles.
6. Leaf-eating beetles, e.g. coconut leaf beetle, Brontispa longissima, occur in the Solomon Islands and northern Australia.  Brontispa can be very severe and even fatal in countries where it has recently arrived and the local coconut palms have no resistance to it. The adult beetle is about 1 cm long, narrow, flat and orange to black. The larva is cream with spines down the sides and a pair of curved hooks at the rear. Also, caterpillars, grasshoppers and stick insects can suddenly attack the leaves but not kill the palm, e.g. palm dart buterflies,
7. Red ring nematode, Rhadinaphelenchus cocophilus, an eelworm found in South America and some Caribbean countries, gets into the trunk through a wound and multiplies in the zone where water travels to the crown causing a blockage of water flow and eventually kills the palm. Weevils carry it into the trunk.
8. Rats may cause much damage to young trees, nuts and stored copra. You can control them with the chemical warfarin, used under supervision of the Department of Agriculture. 
14.0 Harvesting
You can harvest young palms with a pole and hook knife but only climbers can harvest tall palms. In the South Pacific region mature nuts are not usually harvested by hand. People just wait for the mature nuts to fall, and then collect them to make copra. Falling coconuts can cause severe brain damage to young children. Rats can attack immature fruits and cause them to fall without warning. Immature nuts may be damage by fall but mature nuts are usually well cushioned to prevent the nut splitting on impact. In the Philippines coconuts are harvested every 45 days or eight time a year.


Months
0
1
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13
14

Male flowers shed pollen
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Female flowers pollen ready
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Fruits set
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Kernel forms
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Shell dark colour
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Sloshing sound
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Husk dry
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Nuts ripe
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Harvest
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Nuts fall
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15.0 Making copra
See diagram 53.15: Sun drier
While you are waiting for the seedlings to grow think about preparing for making copra. Prepare to use or visit a copra drier.
1. Copra is the dried meat (endosperm, kernel) of the nut. The approximate composition of copra is as follows: Oil 64%, Sugars 16%, Water 6%, Protein 7%, Fibre 5%, and Minerals 2%. Copra contains edible oil that gives the body energy and protein. People, pigs or chickens cannot digest the coconut fibre that is also valuable in the diet.
2. The meat inside an unbroken coconut does not go bad because bacteria or fungi cannot get into it. However, when you cut break open a coconut, bacteria and fungi get onto the meat and spoil it.
If you dry the meat and convert it into copra, bacteria and fungi cannot grow in it and spoil it.
3. The best copra is a light creamy colour and not dark. The pieces can be broken with a snap when bent pressed hard into a C-shape with the brown skin on the outside. Examine examples of good and bad copra.
4. Description of good copra:
1. Clean, no soil or fibres, and not burnt
2. Pieces break sharply, not leathery
3. Pieces same size, usually cup-shaped halves produced by drying the kernel while still in the shell
4. Moisture less than 7%, 6% is ideal
5. Mature nuts only used to make copra
5. Break open a nut and leave it without drying for a few days. Note what happens to the meat.
6. You can make the best copra when the coconut meat is dried quickly and does not get wet by rain. Put the split nuts in the sun for two days with meat uppermost. Remove the meat once it shrinks enough to become loose. Spread the pieces on mats or trays and put them in the sun for another 2 to 4 days. Cover the copra if it starts to rain. You make the best copra in a hot air dryer because the drying is quicker and has more heat to dry the pieces evenly. If you dry it too quickly, a hard outer shell skin may form which slows further drying.
7. Some people try to make copra by using a smoke drier, but this copra is of very bad quality with a dark colour and the smell of smoke.
8. Make or visit a small hot air drier and make some good copra.
16.0 Coconut products
This chapter is based on "The coconut odyssey: the bounteous possibilities of the tree of life", by Foale, Mike A., Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, Australia, 2003
1. Toddy (arrack), kava
Find an unopened flower spathe. Tap it all around with a small hard stick to bruise it slightly, and then tie it around with fibre to stop it opening. After 10 days, cut 5 cm from the end of the spathe and bend down the end so sap can drip into a container. Every morning and evening for 2 to 4 weeks cut a slice of tissue from the end of a spathe and collect up to 1 litre of sap per day. The fresh sap, toddy, contains several vitamins and about 16% sucrose, palm sugar. The fresh drink is good for children, but it soon ferments to form a high alcohol drink, sour toddy. Never give sour toddy to children. After lengthy storage the alcohol in sour toddy is converted to vinegar. In Sri Lanka, evaporation of fresh toddy by boiling produces palm sugar, called jaggery. In Fiji, an intoxicating drink called kava is made with fermented coconut milk and the root of Piper methystichum.
2. Leaves
Use the leaflets to make plaited baskets, hats, toys and decorations. You can use the leaf stalks for fuel.
3. Shells
Use the shells for cups or scoops. You can polish and carve shell to make ornaments, e.g. earrings. Bury burning shells to make charcoal. Burn shells to dry coconut meat, fish and other foods.
4. Husks
You can extract fibres from husks by leaving them under salty water for a year or by passing them through a special motor driven hammer-mill. The wet process is called retting. Then pull off the outer skins to get the fibres, called coir, which can used to make door mats, brooms and ropes. Use husks for mulch and fuel. Long fibres in the petioles can be made into string. Coir fibres and coir dust can be used in plant nursery potting mixes.
5. Trunk
Use palms over 25 years old for supporting poles because they have dense wood in the lower two thirds of the trunk. You can get the denser outer wood sawn in a sawmill to produce timber for making attractive furniture and wooden boxes and even structural framing for housing.
6. Dehusking coconuts
Dehusk the coconut by using either as spike fixed firmly in the ground or a thick bladed coconut knife or a machete. Cut into the husk to make a lengthways split. Then make a second parallel split and use your hand to pull off the husk between the two splits, assisted by a levering action using the spike or knife. Repeat this process to completely dehusk the coconut.
7. Choosing a dehusked coconut from your own palm or from the market
Select a coconut that feels heavy compared to the others and makes a splashing sound when you shake it. The soft eye is usually larger than the 2 blind eyes and should be covered with a brown disc and has no embryo protruding through it, unless the embryo still looks fresh. The 2 blind eyes have shell raised around them, a bit like eyebrows. Avoid cracks in the shell. Collect the nut water by removing a plug of kernel from behind the soft eye or recover the water after breaking open the coconut. (Some people put the coconut in 2 plastic bags and hit it along the "equator" of the nut to produce 2 halves!). Use a thin bade knife to separate the kernel from the shell or use a coconut scraper to scrape out the kernel from the half nut. You can squeeze shredded fresh kernel after adding a little hot water to extract coconut cream or coconut milk containing coconut oil for cooking. Cut and dry shredded kernel to make desiccated coconut for cakes. Also use the residue after squeezing out the cream for poultry feed or in a cake recipe.
8. Make coconut cream and coconut milk
Grate the coconut. Add a ½ cup of coconut water or hot water. Leave to stand, and then squeeze with your hands. Put it into cheesecloth or a strainer. Squeeze out the coconut cream. For coconut milk, use 1 cup of water with 2 cups of scraped coconut. If left to stand in a refrigerator the cream will rise to the top and harden.
9. Make coconut oil Coconut oil is a highly stable food, rich in medium-chain fatty acids that enter easily into the energy regime of the body boosting vigour, enhancing the function of the immune system, and providing protection against a wide range of bacterial, fungal and viral infective organisms. In a diet that also contains the essential omega 3 and omega 6 oils coconut oil has a highly positive impact on heart health.
Cook the coconut cream/milk. The coconut oil remains as the water evaporates and becomes clear, leaving curds of protein in the bottom of the vessel. Pour off the oil. Alternatively the coconut milk can be left to stand in the kitchen for one or two days. The action of some micro-organisms results in the oil separating and rising to the surface and can be poured off but needs a little heating to remove traces of water.
10. Coconut milk, santan can be purchased in cans or in powdered form. To 2.5 cups boiling water add one grated coconut or 4 cups desiccated coconut. Leave to stand for 30 minutes. Squeeze the coconut and strain. Use within 24 hours. It is called narial ka dooth in India and santen in Indonesia and Malaysia.
11. Make coconut ice
Boil 2 cups of sugar in 1/2 cup of milk for 5 minutes after it comes to the boil. Add 3/4 cup of shredded coconut or desiccated coconut and boil for 3 minutes longer, stirring all the time. Beat the mixture until it thickens and pour into damp dish.
12. Macapuno
This is an abnormal coconut found in the Philippines. The fruit is full of a soft, delicious curd that can be eaten fresh or preserved.
13. Animal freed
After extraction of oil from the copra the waste can be used for animal feed.
17.0 New ways to make coconut oil
This chapter is based on "The coconut odyssey: the bounteous possibilities of the tree of life", by Foale, Mike A., Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, Australia, 2003
New technology allows coconut oil to be made locally where the coconut palms grow. New methods are being used to make "virgin coconut oil", i.e. coconut oil pressed without using long high temperatures, up to 60oC. Virgin coconut oil has a neutral colour and attractive aroma of a distinctly coconut flavour but not the roasted flavour of traditional village coconut oil. Virgin oils made by methods 1. and 2. below have stimulated a market in developed countries for coconut oil as a medicine (neutriceutical, health-assisting food), to be processed to soaps, shampoos and body lotions, and to be used in deep frying, cakes and biscuits. The advertising for virgin coconut oil highlight its health benefits, e.g. assisting in weight loss and boosting body energy. The old technology used to extract oil from copra produced low quality "industrial" oil produced by using very high temperature and pressure in a factory. This oil required refining, bleaching and deodorizing before it could be used in food preparation or for high quality soap.
Percentage proportion of edible fatty acids in the oil of natural products
Source
 Caprylic C8
 Capric C10
 Lauric C12
 Myrstic C14
 Palmitic C16
 Stearic C18
 Oleic
C18
 Linoleic C182

 alpha Linoleic C183
 Other
Coconut
 8
 7
 49
 18
 8
 2
 6
 2
 -
 -
Soy
 -
 -
 -
 -
 11
 4
 23
 53
 8
 -
Maize
 -
 -
 -
 -
 12 2
 28
 57
 1
 -
Peanut
 -
 -
 -
 -
 12
 5
 46
 31
 -
 -
Butter
 1
 2
 3
 12
 16
 12
 45
 10
 1
 -
1. Fermentation and gentle heat method
Stand the coconut cream at room temperature for 24 to 48 hours to cause separation of water from the emulsion. Pour off the now concentrated emulsion and heat gently to drive off any remaining water. The settled oil is clear, colourless and has an attractive aroma. They market it as virgin coconut oil. This oil does not undergo the prolonged boiling used to produce village oil from coconut cream. The protein in the coconut cream breaks down during the standing period. However, the village method of boiling fresh coconut cream causes coagulation of the protein, which becomes roasted as the boiling proceeds and gives a distinct flavour to the oil. Coconut oil produced by the prolonged boiling method may have free fatty acids of one% owing to the high temperature experienced in the final stage of heating, but coconut oil separated by the fermentation method has lower free fatty acids content and fetches a premium price.
2. Direct microexpelling method (DME)
This process extracts coconut oil under moderate pressure and temperature, generally not above 60oC, from shredded coconut at moisture content about 11%. The process achieves up to 90% extraction of the oil. The raw kernel is shredded finely by a powered rotating head. Shredding with a traditional tool is too slow and the shreds are too coarse. The shredded coconut is quickly dried on a large iron plate then packed tightly into a perforated cylinder. The coconut is squeezed by a piston pushed down into the cylinder under pressure from a lever mechanism operated by hand. The press can produce up to 1 litre of oil per batch. Four operators can produce about 50L per day from about 500 coconuts, depending on the amount of kernel per nut. After the oil is extracted, the remaining residual cake can be used in the kitchen for baked products or as supplemental feed for pigs and poultry. The DME oil has outstanding qualities of aroma and clarity after a settling time of two days. It is stable and appears to have an indefinite shelf life without developing free fatty acids at room temperature.
3. Fry-drying method or Hot Oil Immersion Drying method (HOID)
This method is based on a traditional method of producing coconut oil for local markets in south-east Asia. It uses a hot coconut oil bath to dry fresh coconut kernel, from which, after draining, the oil is pressed out using a high pressure screw press after mincing the dried pieces. The acceptable shelf life for the oil produced is 2 - 3 months. Fry-drying is recommended at a regional scale with access to 250 ha of productive palms per factory for commercial success. Equipment to process 2 tonnes of kernel per day would have a daily output of about 700L of oil. Fry-drying oil has a roasted flavour, which appeals strongly to the domestic market for cooking oil but the price is much lower than for DME and fermentation oil.
18.0 Coconut terminology
Reference: "Palms in Australia", Jones, D. L., Reed Books, Melbourne, 1996, 3rd. ed. ISBN 0 7301 04907
Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Family Palmae (monocotyledon) The word "cocos" is Macau Portuguese language for monkey because the 3 germination pores, "eyes", at basal type of endocarp look like a monkey's face. The word "nucifera" means "bearing nuts". Cells are diploid, 2n = 32. You divide coconuts into Tall palms, var typica, that are cross pollinated and heterozygous, and Dwarf palms, var nana, that are self-pollinated and homozygous. Coconuts have no tap root, no root hairs, no cambium and no bark
Structure of the coconut palm
Roots
embryo -->
radicle (dies) cotyledon sheath -->
adventitious roots
main roots, primary roots
root = root cap, root tip + absorbing hypodermis + red impervious hypodermis

trunk -->
bole, swollen base of stem internodes -->
adventitious roots
main roots, primary roots
root = root cap, root tip + absorbing hypodermis + red impervious hypodermis

trunk -->
bole, swollen base of stem internodes -->
adventitious roots
lateral roots, main root branches --> rootlets
root = root cap, root tip + absorbing hypodermis + red impervious hypodermis

trunk -->
bole, swollen base of stem internodes -->
adventitious roots
lateral roots -->
air breathing roots, pneumathodes, whitish lumps

Stem

single growing point, growing bud, central bud, main bud, vegetative bud, terminal bud, terminal meristem, apical bud, "cabbage"
tip of old stem narrows to "pencil point"

trunk -->
leaf scars

trunk -->
leaf axils (where the leaf meets the stem)

trunk -->
monocotyledon series of joints "node + leaf + internode" up the stem, internodes very short

bole, swollen base of stem --> roots
.

Leaves
All leaves in a leaf crown

cotyledon --> first green leaf
seedling leaf and all leaves at first entire, fused leaflets, in fibrous leaf sheath, spear --->
leaf or frond, sword leaf, in terminal crown

leaflets, pinnae
1. lamina
leaf or frond, sword leaf, in terminal crown

midrib, rachis
1. lamina
leaf or frond, sword leaf, in terminal crown

.
2. leaf stalk, petiole
leaf or frond, sword leaf, in terminal crown

.
3. leaf base + fibrous sheath
leaf or frond, sword leaf, in terminal crown

Inflorescence, flowers
Monoecious, male and female flowers

male flowers (200 - 300) P 3+3, A 3 + 3
inflorescence, flower bunch, flower cluster
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

female flowers (20 - 50) P3 + 3, G1
inflorescence, flower bunch, flower cluster
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

main axis, main stalk, peduncle --> rachis --> lateral branches, spadix branch, flower stem --> flowers
inflorescence, flower bunch, flower cluster
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

lateral branches
inflorescence, flower bunch, flower cluster
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

outer sheath of spathe
sterile spathe, bract enclosing inflorescence, 1- 5 m long
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

inner sheath of spathe
fertile spathe, bract enclosing inflorescence
spadix inflorescence in axil of each leaf, 1-2 m long

Seed and fruit

exocarp, rind, smooth skin
.
.
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

mesocarp, fibre and pith, husk (coir)
.
.
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

endocarp, hard shell,
.
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

embryo
seed
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

testa, brown seed coat
seed
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

endosperm, kernel, meat, white flesh
seed
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

cotyledon --> haustorium, button, apple, egg
seed
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

coconut water, nut water, liquid endosperm, "coconut milk"
seed
"nut", round coconut, dehusked coconut
fruit, "seed nut", fibrous drupe, button nut

19.0 Intercropping
At the common planting distance of 8 X 8 meters only about 25% of the plantation area is used by the roots and most roots are between 30 and 130 cm depth. Also only about 45% of the radiation from the sun falls on the coconut palm leaves. So coconut growing is an inefficient way to use land! Other crops can be 12 times more efficient. The annual crops corn (maize) soybean, peanuts, sweet potato have about 40% yields under coconuts compared to growing in the open. Mung bean, sweet pepper, Tabasco pepper, sunflower, ginger and taro may have increased yield under coconuts. Robusta coffee and cocoa can be very successful annual intercrops and many tropical perennial crops have proved successful, e.g. pineapple, papaya, jack fruit. Intercropping may increase the yield of coconut palms if the soil is lightly cultivated. In some place cattle are successfully kept under coconuts. Cattle check weed growth and give manure to the soil but they may also compact the soil. Shade tolerant grasses and legumes may planted e.g. Guinea grass (Panicum), Pangola grass (Digitaria), Centro (Centrosema), Stylo (Stylosanthes), Siratro (Phaseolus), Ipil-ipil (Leucaena). However, intercrops may compete for soil nutrients so some special applications of fertilizers may be needed.
Names of coconuts
From a note by Mike Foale
The French word for dwarf, nain, is used for dwarf coconuts, e.g. nain rouge, nain jaune and nain verte for red, yellow and green dwarfs. In western Solomon Islands the word is ngohara. Throughout Polynesia the word is niu. Best known are niu vai (large fruit supplying lots of water) and niu kafa ('afa) large elongated fruit rich in long fibre for rope making). Also niu papua for a small-fruited red dwarf in French Polynesia that was probably brought there long ago from Papua by missionaries. One of the Hindi names begins with kalpa so it may be linked with kelapa, the word used in Bahasa Indonesia. Long ago people from India penetrated well into what is now Indonesia and perhaps the name they used for coconut eventually emerged, slightly changed, as the dominant name.
History
These teaching materials were originally written and illustrated by Mr J. A. Sutherland, Faculty of Education, University of New England, Armidale, Australia and later edited by Dr J. Elfick, School of Education, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. The 2004 edition of this document was edited by Mr Mike A. Foale, author of "The coconut odyssey: the bounteous possibilities of the tree of life", by Foale, Mike A., Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Canberra, Australia, 2003.