Coconut

Harvesting And Storage

Harvest

• Coconuts are harvested from a tree at varying intervals in a year.
• The frequency differs in different localities.
• In the West Coast, nuts are generally harvested from six to twelve times a year.
• In a good well-maintained garden, bunches are regularly produced, and harvesting is done once every month when the nuts are mature.
• In the poor soils of the laterite type, there may be only six harvests.
• In the coconut tracts of Bombay, generally four to six pickings are taken in the year while in Bengal, Orissa and Assam, harvesting is usually done twice a year.
• It is a good practice to harvest coconuts only when they are fully mature, unless for special markets less mature nuts are required.
• Tender coconuts are picked as and when required.
• Coconuts become mature in about twelve months after the opening of the inflorescence or flower bunches.
• In a regularly and heavy bearing tree, bunches appear and mature normally at intervals of about thirty days and a picking can be taken every month.
• When the interval between two harvests is long, two or three bunches (twelve, eleven, and ten months old) are sometimes harvested from a tree at a time.
• This is especially common in the West Coast where green husks are in great demand for the manufacture of coir.
• The husks of fully mature nuts become dry in a short period after harvest and dry husks are not generally used for the manufacture of coir as they give inferior fibre as compared to the fibre obtained from less mature or green nuts, i.e., nuts which are eleven and ten months old.
• Harvest of nuts which are less than eleven months old has been found to be definitely uneconomic for the production of copra and oil, as there is considerable loss in the quality and quantity of these products in the less mature nuts.
• Nuts which are only eleven months old give fibre of good quality and can be harvested in the tracts were green husks are required for the manufacture of coir fibre.
• The slight reduction in the quantity of copra and oil will be easily compensated by the additional income from the fibre.

Method of harvest

• Harvesting of coconuts is commonly done by climbing the tree with the help of a rope ring round the feet or ankles of the climber or by using a ladder.
• On reaching the top, the climber taps the nut in the lowermost bunch with its harvesting knife to test its maturity.
• If he is satisfied, he cuts the bunch at the base of the stalk when it drops down to the ground.
• If the ground is very hard or if tender nuts are to be harvested, the bunches are lowered by using a rope. The climber also cleans the crown and removes the dry leaves, sheaths and spathes.
• In the West Coast and certain other tracts where coconut leaves are required for thatching houses, one or two lowermost leaves are also cut down at the time of harvest.
• The cutting down of green leaves is considered undesirable as it affects the yield of trees to some extent.
• In some places where the trees are not tall, harvesting is done by cutting the bunches with a knife, attached to a long bamboo pole.
• Nuts which are to be stored for making ball copra are not harvested till they are completely ripe and dry.

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Storage

• In India, the harvested nuts, particularly those that are to be converted into copra are stored for some time in shade in specially constructed coconut stores.
• If, however, the husks are required for retting, the nuts are husked soon after harvest.
• In Ceylon, the nuts are kept heaped in the open garden till they are disposed off.
• A few nuts in these heaps are often found to germinate or rot.
• From the point of time of view of making copra a limited period of storage of unhusked nuts is found to be beneficial in the following ways
  1. Husking is made easier as fresh green nuts are more difficult to husk.
  2. Shelling is cleaner and easier since the kernel detaches quicker from the shell.
  3. The resulting shells are dry hard and burn well without smoke.

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Yield

• Under favourable conditions, coconut palms commence to flower in about five to six years after planting.
• In loamy soils, it may be in seven to ten years and in poor soils it may be as late as fifteen to twenty years after planting.
• In about five years after the commencement of the flowering, the trees begin to yield normally.
• Proper manuring, intercultivation and irrigation are known to induce early flowering and bearing.
• The yield of nuts from a tree varies considerably, depending upon a number of factors such as the soil, rainfall and seasonal conditions, the variety planted, the age of the trees, manuring, intercultivation and the effect of pests and diseases.
• Properly maintained and regularly cultivated and manured gardens in loamy soils under unirrigated conditions yield about sixty to hundred nuts per tree per year, while it would be definitely more in the rich alluvial soils. In poor soils and in neglected gardens, the yield may be twenty nuts or less per tree per year.

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