Coconuts, Cocos nucifera, 1.
School Science Lessons
(CoconProj2)
2024-08-28
Coconut Project 2
Contents
5.1 Coconut oil
5.2 Copra
5.3 Copra products
5.4 Cover crops for coconuts
5.5 Climate for coconuts
5.6 Fertilizers for coconuts
5.7 Future of coconut growing
5.8 Intercropping coconuts
5.9 Leaning coconut palms
5.10 Opening coconuts
5.11 Pests and diseases of coconuts
5.12 Soi1 for coconuts
5.13 Uses of the coconut palm
5.14 Weed control for coconuts
5.1 Coconut oil
5.1.1 Coconut nutrition
5.1.7 Coconut oil in the diet
5.0 Coconut oil "miracle"
3.9.2, Coconut oil, (Table)
5.1.3 Fatty acids in oils of natural products
5.1.4 Fatty acids in coconut oil
5.1.5 Make coconut oil
5.1.6 New ways to make coconut oil
5.10 Opening coconuts
5.10.1 Selecting a coconut
5.10.2 Dehusking and opening coconuts
5.10.3 Opening a drinking coconut for coconut water
5.10.4 Opening a mature coconut for coconut "meat"
5.10.5 Grating coconut meat (kernel, endosperm)
5.11 Pests and diseases of coconuts
5.11.12 Ants
5.11.26 Aspergillus mould
5.11.1 Coconut bud rot
5.11.13 Coconut embryo rot
5.11.14 Coconut false smut
5.11.16 Coconut flat moth
5.11.17 Coconut foliar decay
5.11.6 Coconut hispine, coconut leaf beetle
5.11.7 Coconut leaf miner
5.11.18 Coconut leaf spots
5.11.28 Coconut mite
5.11.0 Coconut quarantine
5.11.3 Coconut rhinoceros beetle and Melanesian coconut rhinoceros beetle
5.11.27 Coconut scale and false scale
5.11.20 Coconut seedling blight.
5.11.21 Coconut spathe bug.
5.11.22 Coconut spike moth
5.11.23 Coconut stick insect.
5.11.24 Coconut termite
5.11.25 Coconut thread blight.
5.11.10 Coconut treehopper
5.11.15 Finschhafen coconut disorder
5.11.2 Lethal yellowing, cadang-cadang, Tinangaja
5.11.19 Mealybugs
5.11.5 Nutfall bug
5.11.4 Palm weevils
5.11.8 PNG coconut killing disease
5.11.11 Rats
5.11.9 Red ring nematode disease
5.13 Uses of the coconut palm
5.1 Coconut oil
5.2 Copra
5.3 Copra products
5.13.1 Desiccated coconut
5.13.2 Coconut cake stock feed
5.13.3 Coconut cooking
5.13.4 Coconut cream and coconut milk
5.13.5 Coconut husks, coir
5.13.6 Coconut leaves (fronds)
5.13.7 Coconut oil as a biofuel
5.13.8 Coconut shell-based and wood-based products
5.13.9. Coconut toddy, palm wine (arrack), kava
5.13.10 Coconut sugar
5.13.11 Coconut trunk
5.13.12 Coconut weather station
5.13.13 "Copha"
5.13.14 Heart of palm
5.13.15 Makapuno coconuts
12.12.03.1b Non-ionic surfactants, Coconut diethanolamide
5.13.16 Sprouting coconuts
5.1.1 Coconut nutrition
Nutritionist Lisa Guy writes in the "body + soul" supplement of the Sunday Mail, Brisbane, February 19, 2012:
"Until recently, coconut oil was frowned on by health professionals, because it contains a high level of saturated fat.
Research now shows the saturated fat in coconut oil consists mainly of medium chain fatty acids, which the body can quickly digest and convert into energy.
These acids are metabolized differently to other fats and are not stored as body fat.
Including coconut oil in your daily diet can increase metabolism and enhance weight loss.
It is ideal for cooking due to its stability at high temperatures.
It is perfect for roasting vegetables or adding to Asian-style stir-fried food or smoothies".
5.1.3 Fatty acids in oils of natural products
1. Coconut: Palmitic %, Capric 7%, Caprylic %, Lauric 49%, Myristic 1%, Stearic 2%, Oleic 6%, Linoleic 2%, α-Linoleic 2%
2. Soybean: Palmitic 11%, Capric -, Caprylic -, Lauric -, Myristic -, Stearic 4%, Oleic 23%, Linoleic 54%, α-Linoleic %
3. Maize: Palmitic 12%, Capric -, Caprylic -, Lauric -, Myristic -, Stearic 2%, Oleic 2%, Linoleic 57%, α-Linoleic 1%
4. Peanut: Palmitic 12%, Capric -, Caprylic -, Lauric -, Myristic -, Stearic 5%, Oleic 46%, Linoleic 31%, α-Linoleic 6%
5. Butter: Palmitic 15%, Capric 9%, Caprylic 1%, Lauric 6%, Myristic 20%, Stearic 15%, Oleic 32%, Linoleic 0.2%
α-Linoleic 0.1% (Butyric 3%), (CH3CH2CH2COOH)
Trivial name, systemic name
Caprylic acid, octanoic acid, (CH3(CH2),6COOH), saturated fatty acid
Capric acid, decanoic acid, (CH3(CH2),COOH), saturated fatty acid
Lauric acid, dodecanoic acid, (CH3(CH2),10COOH), saturated fatty acid
Myristic acid, tetradecanoic acid, (CH3(CH3),12COOH), saturated fatty acid
Palmitic acid, hexadecanoic acid, (CH3(CH2),14COOH), saturated fatty acid
Stearic acid, octadecanoic acid, (CH3(CH2),16COOH), saturated fatty acid
Oleic acid, cis-octadec-9-enoic acid, cis-09-octodecanoic acid, [CH3(CH2),7CH=CH(CH2),7COOH], mono-unsaturated fatty acid
Linoleic acid, [CH3(CH2),4CH=CHCH2CH=CH(CH2),7COOH], polyunsaturated fatty acid
α-Linoleic acid [CH3(CH2),CH=CH(CH2),CH=CH(CH2),CH=CH(CH2),7COOH],
polyunsaturated fatty acid.
5.1.4 Fatty acids in coconut oil
List of fatty acids.
Lauric acid, Dodecanoic acid, C12H24O2, 45% to 52%
Myristic acid, Tetradecanoic acid, C14H2O2, 16% to 21%
Hexanoic acid, Caproic acid, C6H12O2, 0.5% to 1%
Octanoic acid, Caprylic acid, CH16O2, 5% to 10%
Decanoic acid, Capric acid, C10H20O2, 4% to %
Palmitic acid, Hexadecanoic acid, C16H32O2, 7% to 10%
Oleic acid, C1H34O2, 5% to %
Palmitoleic acid, C16H30O2, traces
Linoleic acid, C1H32O2, 1% to 3%
Linolenic acid, C1H30O2, Up to 0.2%
Stearic acid, C1H36O2, 2% to 4%.
5.1.5 Make coconut oil
1. Coconut oil is extracted from copra and used in a variety of ways including in cooking margarine and soaps.
From about 150 to 1950, coconuts were the main commercial source of vegetable oils.
They were then overtaken by soybean and then by oil palm.
Refined coconut oil is used for cooking.
Coconut oil is the fat content of the coconut milk or coconut cream, with water removed.
In the home it can be skimmed off the top of heated cream.
2. If you heat coconut cream or coconut milk, the coconut oil remains as the water evaporates leaving curds of protein in the bottom of the saucepan.
If coconut milk is left to stand for a few days the coconut oil separates and rises to the surface.
It can be skimmed off then heated to remove any water.
Coconut oil is solid below about 24oC and becomes rancid slowly.
Freshly made coconut oil is an excellent frying agent and an ingredient of some Asian foods.
5.1.6 New ways to make coconut oil
1. The industrial production of coconut oil starts with the pressing of heated copra.
The product of this process contains a high level of free fatty acids and undesirable flavours, colours and aromas, because of the variable quality of copra from different sources.
Before edible coconut oil can be produced, further processes of refining, bleaching and deodorizing are needed.
By contrast, virgin coconut oil made from the fresh kernel without heating is edible if the extraction is done properly.
This oil is stable with a long shelf and has a low content of free fatty acids and provides Vitamin E in the diet.
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 is derived from fresh coconuts, not copra.
With the wet milling method the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), without drying first.
Coconut milk is expressed first by pressing.
The oil can then be separated from the water by boiling, fermentation, refrigeration, enzymes and centrifuges.
Virgin coconut oil has a neutral colour and attractive aroma of a distinct 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 highlights its health benefits, e.g. helping 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.
No worldwide standard definition of "virgin coconut oil" exists.
There are three different technologies capable of producing acceptable virgin coconut oil, VCO.
Two are based on shredding the kernel either direct from the half nut or after deshelling and paring off of the testa.
The shredded kernel is compressed to extract milk/cream.
Traditionally in many parts of SE Asia the milk is left to stand for up to 4 hours during which time the oil comes to the surface in the same way that cream rises to the surface of cow's milk.
The oil is decanted and filtered.
An alternative approach, adopted where the scale of supply is high, is to centrifuge the milk.
This has been adopted by several companies in Thailand which have road access to many thousands of hectares of plantations.
Output of 10 000 litres per day is achieved, requiring or so nuts per litre, depending on the average size of nut.
The company Kokonut Pacific has developed a method described on their website of shredding and partially drying the kernel (to a moisture content around 12%), which results in pure oil being extracted when the material is compressed manually.
A family unit of four workers might product 50 to 70 litres of oil per day.
The oil is bulked up from many producers, in the Solomon Islands for example, where the method is very well established, and quality checks and filtration are done before export.
2. Fermentation and gentle heat method
Stand the coconut cream at room temperature for 24 to 4 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 1% 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.
3. Direct micro expelling method (DME)
In the direct micro expelling method of wet milling the oil is extracted from fresh coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), after the adjustment of the water content, then the pressing of the coconut flesh results in the direct extraction of free flowing oil.
This process extracts coconut oil under moderate pressure and temperature, generally not above 60oC, from shredded coconuts at moisture content about 11%.
The process achieves up to 90% extraction of the oil.
The raw meat (kernel, endosperm), 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 how much meat (kernel, endosperm), per coconut.
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.
4. 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 meat (kernel, endosperm), 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 to 3 months.
Fry drying is recommended at a regional scale with access to 250 ha of productive palms per factory for success.
Equipment to process 2 tonnes of meat (kernel, endosperm), 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.
The melting point of unrefined coconut oil melts is about 25oC and the smoke point is 170oC, but 232oC if refined.
Coconut oil is a comparatively stable oil that oxidizes slowly and becomes rancid slowly, because of the high saturated fatty acid content.
However, for long periods it should be stored solid below 25oC.
5.1.7 Coconut oil in the diet
Proponents of including coconut oil in the diet claim that In the United States, the interests of the US domestic fats and oils industry and soybean growers were successful at driving down usage of coconut oil by pointing to the high concentration of saturated fats in coconut oil.
During concern over increased rates of heart disease, the edible oil industry's response at that time was to claim that it was only the saturated fat in the hydrogenated oils that was causing the problem.
Not being domestically grown in the US, coconut oil and palm oil industries were not able to defend themselves.
However, the proponents for coconut oil say it is rich in short and medium chain fatty acids.
Desiccated coconut is about 69% coconut fat and coconut milk is about 24% fat.
About 50% of coconut fat is lauric acid, which has antibacterial, antiviral and antiprotozoal functions in food.
Also, another one medium chain fatty acid, capric acid, has been added to the list of coconut's antimicrobial components.
It is claimed that natural coconut fat in the diet leads to a normalization of body lipids, protects against alcohol damage to the liver, and improves the immune system's anti-inflammatory response and that the medium chain fatty acids and monoglycerides found primarily in coconut oil have tremendous healing power.
5.2 Copra
See diagram 53.15: Sun drying, Hot air drier, Smoke drier
1. While you are waiting for the seedlings to grow think about preparing for making copra.
Prepare to use or visit a copra drier.
Copra is the dried meat (kernel, endosperm), 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 may contain 65-70 % of 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" (kernel, endosperm), 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.
The nut meat is eaten raw or used in a huge variety of recipes for cooked food.
Mass-produced nut meat is dried in the sun or in ovens fuelled by burning the husks, to produce copra that has been the main form in which coconut has been exported as it keeps well.
It contains about 60-70% coconut oil, but the oil is slow to become rancid.
Grated copra is also used in confectionery.
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:
* Clean, no soil or fibres, and not burnt.
* Pieces break sharply, not leathery.
* Pieces same size, usually cup-shaped halves produced by drying the meat (kernel, endosperm), while still in the shell.
* Moisture less than 7%, 6% is ideal.
* Mature coconuts only used to make copra.
* Aflatoxins, produced by two moulds, Coconut Aspergillus mould,
Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus may occur in copra not dried or not stored properly.
* Break open a nut and leave it without drying for a few days.
Note what happens to the meat (kernel, endosperm).
5. You can make the best copra when the coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), is dried quickly and does not get wet by rain.
Put the split coconuts 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 that slows further drying.
6. 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.
7. Make or visit a small hot air drier and make some good copra.
5.3 Copra products
1. Copra is the dried coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), removed from the shell, usually as hemispheric halves, and then dried by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying (hot air drying).
The crude coconut oil extracted from copra is not suitable for consumption and must be refined, bleached, and deodorized, to make RBD coconut oil.
The grades of copra are determined by moisture content.
In a village where moisture meters are not available in the villages, moisture content determination is done visually, or by cracking or splitting the copra by hand and feeling by experienced copra buyers.
In India, the milling grade of copra, manufactured by sun-drying or hot air dryers, is used to extract the coconut oil, coconut butter.
It is classified in different grades.
First grade copra must be dried by hot air and be clean with no discoloration, smoke stains, excess mould, insect infestation and charred pieces of copra, not contain germinated coconuts, have moisture content < 6% and have fatty acid content < 3%.
The edible grade of copra is consumed as a dry fruit and used for traditional oil lamps and lamps for religious purposes.
This copra is made in balls and cups, ball copra and cup copra.
2. Hydrogenated coconut oil has an increase in melting point and increased saturated fat.
It may contain trans fats.
It is used in non-dairy creamers, shortenings, e.g. Copha (in Australia), children's foods, chocolate crackles by coating "Rice Bubbles" in Copha, and snack foods.
3. Fractionated coconut oil, medium chain triglycerides (MCT), from coconut oil has most of the long-chain triglycerides removed, leaving mostly saturated fats, the medium chain triglycerides caprylic acid and capric acid remain.
It is more heat stable and has a longer shelf life than other forms of coconut oil.
It is used to make essences, massage oils and cosmetics.
Medium chain triglycerides can be used in medicines and baby foods.
4. Many populations regard coconut meat as a healthy food and it represents a high proportion of fats in their diet.
Research is continuing on whether higher levels of serum cholesterol in these populations are associated with cardiovascular disease caused by the high proportion of saturated fats in coconut oil.
The usual recommendation is that some coconut oil in the diet should be replaced by oils with a higher proportion of polyunsaturated fats.
Some people in these populations believe that doctors in Western countries are wrongly prejudiced against "tropical oils".
5. Below 24oC, the coconut oil from copra is a white yellow solid fat so is suitable for making soap.
Hydrogenated coconut oil is used to make margarine and shortenings, e.g. Copha in Australia.
Coconut oil is also used for making cosmetics, industrial lubricants, massage lubricants, lamp fuel, skin moisturizers, hair styling solutions and sexual lubricants, but NOT for lubricating condoms.
6. Until 1962 when overtaken by soya beans copra was the major source of vegetable oil in the world.
Since that time most of the large copra plantations in the Pacific islands have been abandoned.
But coconuts are still grown on small islands to produce copra that is then transported in hessian (jute), bags (copra sacks), to centres for export.
7. Industrial uses of coconut products include methyl esters, rubber, soap, detergents, lubricants, jet engine oils, PVC and polyurethane base materials in paint, explosives and propellants.
5.4 Cover crops for coconuts
1. Sow cover crops, e.g. Calopogonium muconoides, Centrosema, Pueraria, Crotalaria juncea (Sunnhemp), Tephrosia purpurea,
Gliricidia maculata, Mimosa invisa, or sow as a mixture of cover crops.
Do not plough nearer than 2 metres to the palms to avoid damage to the roots.
Ploughing between the palms is not recommended, unless intercrops are being grown, because it increases the loss of soil organic matter and may damage the roots.
2. Weeds and understory vegetation compete for water and nutrients.
So clear them by hand or 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), between the coconut palms, (intercrops), e.g. sweet potato.
5.5 Climate for coconuts
53.1 "Coconut weather indicator", Hawaii (JPG)
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 coconuts.
Cut down older unproductive palms that may be keeping the sunlight from the young palms.
Peak coconut production occurs when trees are about 30 years old and continue to be productive to more than one hundred years old.
2. A mean temperature 25oC to 2oC is best, because cool seasonal weather reduces growth.
Coconuts need high humidity for the fruit to mature.
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 contact ground water, especially in coastal areas where the soils may be deep and sandy and become dry between periods of rain.
During dry summer months, transplanted seedlings should be shaded, and irrigated twice a week.
Drought reduces growth of the palm.
A mature coconut palm can take up 20 litres of water each day.
5.6 Fertilizers for coconuts
Regular manuring with organic manure and recommended fertilizers from the first year of planting is essential for high productivity.
Organic manure: compost, farm yard manure, bone meal, fish meal, blood meal.
Recommended fertilizer schedule, 3 year dose:
| Ammonium sulfate 1650 g, | Urea 750 g, | Superphosphate (single), 9540 g, | Muriate of potash (KCl), 1140 g |
Schedule of application:
3 months of age, 1/10 of dose | 1 year of age, 1/3 of dose | 2 years of age, 2/3 of dose | 3 years of age and onwards, full dose | (or Ultraphosphate / Rock phosphate 600 g).
4. 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 an agriculture extension officer 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 agriculture extension officer recommends applying 15 g muriate of potash (potassium chloride), and 7 g of 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.
Coconut palms with nitrogen deficiency have yellowing of the oldest leaves to the entire canopy.
Some people recommend use of a granular NPK 2-1-1 fertilizer that contains fast-release and slow-release nitrogen.
Coconut palms with potassium deficiency have necrotic spotting on the oldest leaves to leaflet tips to the trunk.
Some people recommend use of a sulfur-coated potassium sulfate fertilizer broadcast under the canopy.
5. The coconut produces new adventitious roots throughout its life, eventually from an inverted cone of tissue that is the extension of the trunk beneath the soil surface.
Both secondary and tertiary roots branch from these roots anywhere along their length, particularly from adventitious roots near the surface, in the soil layer richest in nutrients.
Roots can extend up to 10m horizontally.
So add fertilizer right across the space between the rows of the plantation and not only within a couple of metres of the trunk of each palm.
6. Bury fresh or dried coconut husks in long trenches 3m from the coconut palms, or in circular trenches 2m around the palms.
The concave surfaces of the coconut husks should face up and be well covered in soil.
5.7 Future of coconut growing
It has been recognized for several decades that the uncritical message that coconut oil boosts harmful cholesterol creating an increased heart risk is not true.
The soy industry worked very hard to discredit coconut oil after the second world war when imports to the US resumed following liberation of the Philippines.
The wartime boost to demand for edible oils in the US had given the soy industry a huge lift, and the producers and marketers were keen not to concede the market back to the pre-war preferred coconut shortening and cooking oil.
The trials that showed cholesterol to rise in laboratory animals on sole coconut as the fat component in the diet, compared with steady cholesterol when soy was the sole dietary oil, gave that bad result for coconut as coconut lacks the essential fats, ω-6 fatty acids (omega-6 fatty acids), and ω-3 fatty acids (n-3 fatty acids).
The animals were suffering from that deficiency and their cholesterol was high.
The soy industry seized upon those results and re-educated a whole generation of health professionals and dieticians about dietary fats like "saturated is bad for your heart and polyunsaturated is good for your heart".
There are many references on the internet that deal with this story.
In reality the saturated fats in coconut oil boost HDL as much as they boost LDL so that there is a non-harmful balance maintained.
Coconut is definitely not a heart risk in a balanced diet.
In the Pacific islands large scale commercial plantations are in decline, but smallholder production continues, because coconuts are important for consumption, cash crops and shade for intercrops in subsistence agriculture.
Green coconut water is an important source of fluids and mineral salts for people living on coral atolls, and its isotonic properties make it useful for diarrhoea, cholera and other causes of dehydration.
Coconut flesh supplements fish in remote communities.
As a cash crop, coconuts may be sold locally, processed at village level to make coconut oil, meal and coconut cream, but the main cash crop is copra sold to traders and processors.
Prices of coconut products are not stable in the world market and cyclones may destroy crops, so coconut farmers need intercrops for income security.
In the Pacific islands, a big proportion of coconuts may not be picked up for harvest when prices are low, because of the cost of labour from outside the family.
Average figures for a smallholding of 0.5 hectares in Papua New Guinea have been estimated as a nut yield of 3000 kg / hectare, an average weight of 1.5 kg per nut, a copra yield of 0.24 kg / nut, and copra yield of 40 kg / hectare and total dried copra production of 240 kg.
The smallholder has to pay for labour to collect nuts off the ground or harvest from tree, labour for dehusking, drying the endosperm and transport of copra to a trader.
When the international copra price is low copra production is attractive only where alternative employment opportunities are limited.
In many countries, a high percentage of coconut palms are senile with declining production.
Smallholders may be content to allow self seeding to maintain stands of trees of different ages instead of replacing palms, with high yielding varieties to avoid a declining productivity, which may not even be noticed.
Where there is insecure land tenure or customary tenure, smallholders may not want to risk cash investment to improve yields.
Where governments have been involved in the marketing, finance, regulation, research and advice of the coconut industry run by smallholders, the fees for such services have acted as a tax on smallholders and limited the use of new technologies to increase production.
5.8Intercropping coconuts
5. 4.26 Leucaena leucocephala
55.15 Planting Gliricidia
Coconuts are almost the ideal plants for inter-cropping, because of the low percentage of air space between canopy and ground of older palms, the structure of the canopy fronds and the percentage of solar radiation they allow to pass, and the radius and depth of the roots.
At the common planting distance of × metres, 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 and 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 yields 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 places, 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 be planted, e.g. Guinea grass (Panicum), Pangola grass (Digitaria), Centro (Centrosema),
Stylo (Stylosanthes), Siratro (Phaseolus), Ipil-ipil (Leucaena).
Beside cattle and other animals under coconuts, intercrops can include ornamental plants, Gliricidia for fuel and cattle feed, tubers (cassava, sweet potato, taro, yams), cereals (finger millet, maize, sorghum), legumes (cowpea, green gram, groundnuts, soybeans winged beans), fruits (banana, citrus, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, pomegranate), spices (areca nut, betel nut leaves, black pepper, chillies, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, sesame, turmeric, vanilla), and pasture grasses, cocoa and coffee.
However, intercrops may compete for soil nutrients so some special applications of fertilizers may be needed.
5.9 Leaning coconut palms
In general, plants are phototrophic, meaning that the growing point gets oriented to display the emerging leaves in the direction of highest light intensity.
In the case of a palm which has a rigid single trunk/stem this response evidently takes place very early, because the trunk is often straight, but is angled towards the water.
I made observation on many beaches, particularly in the Cocos Keeling group where I spent a few days, checking on palms growing on beaches, that were oriented north/south, east/west, and some intermediate cases.
Coconut palms on north/south beaches, exposed either to the east or the west, consistently leaned towards the water.
Coconut palms on east/west beaches exposed either to the north or the south invariably had little or no lean.
This is consistent with positive phototropism, because on the north/south beaches palms get a strong dose of reflected light from the ocean surface during early morning, up to midmorning.
At the higher solar elevation towards and after midday there would be little additional reflected light.
Coconut palms on the east west beaches would not get any reflected light during early to mid morning except those growing at a "high" latitude (more than 20 degrees north or south), and even then the intensity is unlikely to match reflected light directed towards a north/south beach within the tropics.
Once leaning has become manifest a coconut palm is more likely to lean further in response to strong wind as a result of loosening of the attachment of the roots to the soil.
The centre of gravity is well off centre.
5.12 Soil for coconuts
See diagram 53.12.4: Drip circle, Marking out
1. Coconuts grow well in aerated porous soils on coasts with plenty of groundwater.
2. They can live in slightly salty soils, but do not grow well if the soil water becomes permanently salty.
3. They can grow well in soils with pH 5 to 8.
Give the seedlings some potash fertilizer or farmyard manure and perhaps trace elements if the pH of the soil is too high.
5.14 Weeds control for coconuts
Keep a clear area 2 metres wide around each seedling by ring weeding and by brushing the interlines every 3 months.
Cut out any climbing weeds growing close to the palms.
Put this material around the young seedlings as mulch.
Never use fire in clearing around coconuts.
5.11.0 Coconut quarantine
If travelling by air or sea between countries where coconuts are grown, do not take any coconuts or coconut products with you without permission from government authorities, because you may spread coconut pests and diseases.
Ask an agriculture extension officer for advice about control of local diseases and pests.
5.11.1 Coconut bud rot
Coconut budrot, fruit rot, kole-roga, Phytophthora palmivora and Phytophthora hevae, Phylum: Oomycota, Class: Oomycetes, Order: Peronosporales
Coconut bud rot, caused by fungus Phytophthora palmivora occurs worldwide, and causes yellowing diseases leading to the 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, so 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.
Ganoderma bud rot, Ganoderma zonatum affects living coconut palms
5.11.2 Lethal yellowing, cadang-cadang, Tinangaja
Candidatus Phytoplasma palmae (lethal yellowing (LY), Domain: Bacteria Phylum: Firmicutes Class: Mollicutes Order: Acholeplasmatales Family: Acholeplasmataceae
See diagram 53.22: Lethal yellowing and cadang-cadang disease.
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 Hopper / Yellowing.
A viroid produces yellow spots on the leaves and slowly kills the palm.
A viroid is very small foreign molecule.
Coconut tinangaja, yellow mottle decline, Coconut tinangaja viroid, CTiVd, occurs in Guam.
Bogia coconut syndrome (BCS) Candidatus Phytoplasma noviguineense
5.11.3 Coconut rhinoceros beetle, (CRB), and Melanesian coconut rhinoceros beetle
Coconut Rhinoceros beetle, Oryctes rhinoceros, is a large brown black beetle, up to 5 cm long, with a horn on its head.
See diagram 53.23: Oryctes rhinoceros.
Melanesian coconut rhinoceros beetle, Scapanes australis
The adult beetle burrows into the terminal bud, unopened fronds and spathes.
It Attacked fronds when opened show characteristic geometric cuts.
It may kill young palms, because the palm has only one vegetative bud.
The beetle lays eggs in rotting coconut logs.
A related beetle, the New Guinea Rhinoceros Beetle, Scapanes australis, Scapanes grossepunctatus, 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 an agriculture extension officer, because it may not allow the use of mulch in gardens, because these beetles may breed in it.
Control measures
1. Use a small hook to hook out the beetles.
2. Fill the three top-most axils with Sevidol G and fine sand, three times a year.
3. Put 10.5 g of naphthalene moth balls in the leaf axis and cover it with fine sand.
4. Spray 0.01% carbaryl solution on the breeding sites to destroy the larva.
5. Release beetles infected with the virus Baculovirus oryctus.
6. Spray a culture in water of the green insect fungus Metarrizium anisopliae on breeding sites.
7. Sanitation
(Based on: "Coconut rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros): A manual for control and management of the pest in Pacific Island countries and territories"
7.1 Cut down dead standing palms, then them cut into pieces and burn or bury the pieces to remove potential breeding sites.
7.2 Cut up any dead palms on the ground prior to disposal by burning or burying.
7.3 Cover palm stumps that remain after cutting down the palm.
7.4 Burn or bury any heaps of organic matter, particularly palm debris, heaps of fronds, empty fruit bunches, sawdust from sawmills that process palm timber.
Compost or farmyard manure should be turned regularly, and larvae removed, or pigs and chickens can assist by eating exposed larvae.
5.10.1 Selecting a coconut
The coconut should feel comparatively heavy and have a splashing sound when shaken.
The soft eye is usually larger than the two blind eyes and should be covered with a brown disc and has no embryo protruding through it, unless the embryo still looks fresh.
The two blind eyes have shell raised around them, a bit like eyebrows.
Avoid damaged coconuts or coconuts with cracks in the shell.
5.10.2 Dehusking and opening a coconut
1. The easiest way to open a coconut is to use the new coconut opening inventions:
Opening a coconut from a coconut palm (fruit)
1. Impale the coconut on a spike or pipe fixed firmly in the ground.
Use a thick bladed coconut knife or a machete to cut into the husk to make a lengthways split.
Then make a second parallel split and use your hands to pull off the husk between the two splits, assisted by a levering action using the spike or a knife.
Repeat this process to completely dehusk the coconut.
2. Use a machete to cut off the top of a drinking coconut husk with four cuts along the length until the dome of the nut is revealed.
Cutting across the fibres is not easy.
Pierce any of the eyes with a screwdriver or corkscrew.
Drain the coconut water.
Tap right around the equator of the nut with a hammer until it cracks into two halves.
Cut through the meat (kernel, endosperm), to the shell with a blunt knife to make wedges that can be levered.
If you leave the half coconut to dry in the sun or a slow oven the meat separates from the shell.
3. Opening a round coconut from a shop (seed + endocarp)
Put the coconut in 2 plastic bags and hit it along the "equator" of the nut to produce two halves.
Use a thin blade knife to separate the meat (kernel, endosperm), from the shell or use a coconut scraper to scrape out the meat (kernel, endosperm), from the half nut.
4. Hold the coconut steady and tap around its circumference with a hammer or the back of a cleaver.
Turn and hit the coconut until it splits.
5. Roast the coconut at 190oC for 15 minutes, wrap it in a tea towel, then hit it.
6. Poke a hole in a soft "eye" and pour the coconut water into a bowl.
Then put the coconut in a freezer for one hour or heat it in a 350o oven for 20 minutes then leave to cool.
Cover the coconut with a towel and gently hit it with a hammer until it breaks open.
7. Another way to open a coconut is to put the dehusked coconut in the oven at 200oC for about 10 minutes, where it splits open or almost open, leaving cracks in the shell.
5.10.3 Opening a drinking coconut for coconut water
1. A drinking coconut nut has a softer husk than a mature coconut.
The husk is easier to remove, but the shell is thinner, so it can be broken by inexpert cutting.
The coconut water (liquid endosperm), from a drinking coconut (juice nut), just cut from a palm, contains about 2% sugars and some minerals, vitamins and oil.
The vitamin C content of coconut water is actually very low, being around 0.002%.
If undamaged, the coconut water is sterile and has even been transfused intravenously to fight dehydration and electrolyte depletion in wounded soldiers during combat instead of plasma when treating battle casualties.
The shells being waterproof, keeping the contents undisturbed and sterile.
A drinking coconut should have a glossy undamaged skin and white husk fibres.
2. Drain the liquid by making holes in the three eyes at one end, using a screwdriver or skewer.
Collect the nut water by removing a plug of meat (kernel, endosperm), from behind the soft eye or recover the water after breaking open the coconut.
The coconut is full of coconut water and the soft meat (kernel, endosperm), can be scraped off with a spoon.
Prise the flesh from the shell with a blunt knife and peel the brown skin with a vegetable peeler.
3. Coconut water is often confused with coconut milk produced from grated coconut flesh.
The "drinking coconuts" taste best between 6 and 9 months old.
4. In the Philippines, the bacterium, Acetobacter xylinum, vinegar bacteria, is allowed to form a gelatinous mass called "nata de coco" on fermenting coconut water, which can be eaten as a sweet.
5.10.4 Open a mature coconut for coconut "meat"
Select a large fruit that feels heavy for its size and without cracks, dampness or mould in the outer husk.
The coconut "meat" (kernel, endosperm), is thicker and tougher than in the drinking coconuts and it has the coconut taste.
It is not full of coconut water so you can hear a sloshing sound when you shake the coconut.
The meat has a crunchy pleasant taste.
Fresh unopened fruits can be stored for months.
5.10.5 Grating coconut meat (kernel, endosperm)
1. Coconut meat cannot be roasted whole, so it is grated into small flakes or particles that keep a chewy texture unless toasted and then kept very dry.
The distinctive rich aroma is caused by lactones, saturated fatty acids, e.g. γ-decalactone, 4-hexylbutanolide, (C10H1O2), occurs in coconut to give it a fatty, creamy odour and a fatty, oily taste.
2. Use a coconut grating stool.
A medium size coconut gives 3-4 cups of grated coconut meat.
Use the grated meat within two days or keep it in a refrigerator.
* Shred pieces of the coconut meat with a kitchen hand grater.
* Cut the coconut meat into small pieces and grate them 1/2 cup at a time, in a food processor or blender.
* Use a coconut grating stool consisting of a toothed iron bar attached horizontally to a flat topped stool.
Sit on the stool, hold half a coconut shell held in both hands, and scrape the inside of the half coconut shell against the teeth of the bar.
3. Squeeze shredded fresh meat (kernel, endosperm), after adding a little hot water to extract coconut cream or coconut milk containing coconut oil for cooking.
Cut and dry shredded meat (kernel, endosperm), to make desiccated coconut for cakes.
Also, use the residue after squeezing out the cream for poultry feed or in a cake recipe.
Coconut milk is produced by mixing grated coconut with hot water, producing a milky white liquid containing coconut oil and aromatic substances.
The milk is used in a variety of Asian recipes.
An acceptable way to produce coconut milk is to mix desiccated coconut with hot water in an electric blender.
5.11.4 Palm weevils
Red palm weevil (RPW) Asian palm weevil, sago palm weevil, Rhyncophorus ferrugineus is a major pest insect of the coconut palm.
Red palm weevil occurs worldwide, and especially in Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.
(It is not clear whether Rhyncophorus vulneratus is another species called red palm weevil).
Black palm weevil Rhyncophorus bilineatus can cause damage to coconuts.
South American palm weevil Rhynchophorus palmarum can cause damage to coconuts.
Adults lay white eggs, 3 mm long are laid in wind damage or in damage made by insects, e.g. Rhinoceros beetle, or by cane knives in the trunks or leaf stalks.
The eggs swell and the larvae hatch out up to 5 days later.
Legless larvae with white bodies and brown head grow up to 50 mm long, feed on plant tissue in trunk.
The larvae cause holes in the bark with a brown, viscous fluid oozing out and chewed plant tissue sticking out.
The larvae they feed higher up the trunk in older coconut palms and may burrow into the crown of young palm.
Larvae spins a cocoon under the bark of the coconut palm and red-brown adults with dark spots behind their head emerge up to 12-20 days later.
The adults about 40 mm long have long curved snouts. Male and female snouts vary.
Infestation of the red palm weevil is hard to detect on the outside of the palm before damage is severe on the inside.
Hollowed out coconut palms may collapse and die.
Some farmers can hear the crunching and chewing noise of the weevils if they listen carefully.
The South American palm weevil (Rhynchophorus palmarum) damages, because associated red ring nematode and red ring disease.
Control measures
1. Cut and remove damaged palms and decayed stumps, then split open these damaged parts and burn the weevils inside them.
2. Avoid wounding or damaging the palms and paste any damage with a mixture of carbaryl and Thiodan insecticide with soil.
3. When cutting coconut leaves, leave at least 1m of petiole on the trunk.
4. Use a pherome trap to attract the palm weevils.
5. Trunk injection of systematic insecticides has been recommended.
6. Treat leaf rot or bud rot following weevil damage with 1% carbaryl, by plugging holes in the damaged region and pouring the insecticide into a slanting hole above the infection site, then plug the slanting hole.
7. Garlic oil and synthetic diallyl disulphide have proved to be toxic to palm weevils.
6. Check for infection of transferred planting material.
5.11.5 Coconut nutfall bug and coconut bug
Nutfall bug, Amblypelta cocophaga and Amblypelta lutescens, feed on the young button nuts of mature palms to cause nut fall of young fruits.
Control them with green ants (green tree ants, sugar ants, red weaver ants, large red ants, "kurakum ants", kerengga, Oecophylla smaragdina).
Coconut bug, Pseudotheraptus wayi.
5.11.6 Coconut hispine beetle, coconut leaf beetle
Coconut hispine beetle, coconut leaf beetle, Brontispa longissima, occurs in the Solomon Islands and northern Australia.
It 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.
The beetles and their larvae feed between the unopened leaflets of the fronds.
Also, caterpillars, grasshoppers and stick insects can suddenly attack the leaves, but not kill the palm, e.g. palm dart butterflies.
5.11.7 Coconut leaf miner
Coconut leafminer, coconut leaf hispid, Promecotheca caerulipennis and Promecotheca opacicollis
Coconut leaf miner, Promecotheca papuana, is only about 1 cm long, but it can cause severe infections such that there are no nuts on the trees for more than a year.
5.11.8 PNG coconut killing disease
Updated 31 May 2013, 17:17 AEST
A disease called Bogia coconut syndrome has killed thousands of coconut trees in Papua New Guinea's Madang Province is reported to have spread to other food crops including bananas and taro.
The PNG Coconut killing disease is named after the area it first emerged in, the villages in Bogia to Sumkar and Madang town.
Little is known about the disease, but Australian scientists helping their counterparts in Papua New Guinea by analysing samples from infected trees if they send them to Australia.
The coconut tree suddenly goes yellow and stops bearing nuts and then dies, it's really quite a dramatic event.
A phytoplasm is associated with the disease.
A phytoplasm is like bacteria, except that they are very fragile and lack a cell wall, so they cannot be cultured.
They have unique DNA.
They are introduced into the vascular bundles of plants by sap sucking insects.
Coconuts have only have a single growing point, they are very susceptible to anything that affects their apical meristem to cause necrosis of the tissue around the bud, collapse of the fronds and cessation of flowering and nut production.
5.11.9 Red ring nematode disease
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.
5.11.10 Coconut treehopper
Different species of long-horned grasshoppers are called "Sexava" in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, where they attack palms and bananas.
Coconut treehopper, Sexava nubila
The adults are up to 60 mm long with much longer antennae.
They live over 100 days, feed at night and during the day they shelter on the undersides of leaves.
The adults lay thin eggs, about 10 mm long, in the soil or on fronds, which hatch after about 8 weeks.
The nymphs are green or brown.
Control of Sexava is difficult and ineffective, beyond raking the soil around the coconut palms to expose the eggs to egg parasites.
Insecticides are not recommended.
5.11.11 Rats
See diagram 55.1.7: Poison baits for rats.
See diagram 55.49: Pacific rats.
Rats may cause much damage to young trees, coconuts and stored copra.
Rats attack tender nuts causing immature tree fall.
Control measures
Fix mechanical barriers, tree guards, up to 2m height above ground level using 40 cm sheet metal guards.
Use rat traps.
Use rat baits of zinc phosphide or warfarin
Fumigate hiding places with ammonium phosphide tablets.
Place wax blocks containing Bromodioline poison on palms.
Use chemicals under supervision of an agriculture extension officer.
5.11.12 Ants
The ant Polyrhaeis cyaniventris, in gathering coconut nectar, removes the nectary lining of the stigmata, and so prevents fertilization.
5.11.13 Coconut embryo rot
Coconut embryo rot, Marasmiellus inoderma, Division: Basidiomycota Family: Marasmiaceae, tropical saprophyte, minor coconut problem
See diagram 53.24: Marasmiellus inoderma
Marasmiellus inoderma, (sheath rot of maize), Phylum: Basidiomycota, Class: Agaricomycetes
Coconut basal trunk rot, Marasmiellus albofuscus, nongermination of seed nut and death of embryo
Maramius crinisequi, (see Lethal bole rot of coconut, coconut seedling basal stem break, Marasmiellus cocophilus
Seednut shoots already emerged through the micropyle are infected and killed by Marasmiellus inoderma.
M. cocophilus, M. albofuscus and M. crinisequi also grow in seednuts in the germination nursery.
Total dehusking of some cultivars leads to considerable germination failure, so partial dehusking, especially of the calyx end, and infiltration of the husk with a fungicide is suggested.
In the Solomon Islands, seednuts from an area where M. cocophilus is present are pared at the top and 3 sides and dipped for 15 min in 250 p.p.m. phenylmercury acetate + a wetter.
5.11.14 Coconut false smut
Coconut false rust, coconut leaf smut, Graphiola cocoina and Graphiola phoenicis
See diagram 53.30: Graphiola cocoina
(Basidiomycota: Ustilaginomycotina: Exobasidiomycetes:
Leaf ‘smut’. Small, grey or black, erumpent pustules (basidiomata) mainly on upper surface of frond, often surrounded by a subcircular or rectangular yellowish or brown spot, about 4 × 2 mm; yellowish or brown discoloration on opposite surface of frond.
5.11.15 Finschhafen coconut disorder
Finschhafen coconut disorder, caused by the leafhopper, Zophiuma butawengi, and Zophiuma lobulata, Family: Lophopidae, New Guinea.
Hosts: Oil palm, coconut palm and betel nut (all Arecaceae)
No pathogen, disorder which was entirely due to the feeding impact of large numbers of Z. butawengi, particularly nymphs.
5.11.16 Coconut flat moth
Coconut flat moth, coconut leafminer, Agonoxena argaula and Agonoxena pyrogramma
See diagram 53.29: Agonoxena argaula
Agonoxena argaula, the coconut flat moth, is a moth of the family Agonoxenidae.
It is artificially spread by commerce.
Adults are yellowish brown with narrow pointed wings.
The male moth bears a linear white mark on the forewings.
During a heavy attack, several thousand larvae may infest a single palm tree.
The feeding is confined to the epidermis on the underside of the leaves.
The feeding scar of the young larva is long and narrow, spreading into wide, irregular blotches as the caterpillar grows.
Feeding areas turn brown and are conspicuous.
Feeding occurs in the epidermis on the leaf underside, underneath webbing.
5.11.17 Coconut foliar decay
See diagram 53.28: Yellowing caused by CFDV
Coconut foliar decay, New Hebrides coconut disease, Coconut foliar decay nanavirus, CFDV
Mindus taffini, (Homoptera Cixiidae), a vector of foliar decay of coconut in Vanuatu.
he virus can be found in the roots, trunk, leaves and the nut including the husk and embryo, but it is unknown whether seeds carry it.
Vector insect is the planthopper, Myndus taffini, breeding occurs on the roots of Hibiscus tiliaceous.
The first sign of infection is in the mid-section of the crown where fronds have a few yellowing leaflets.
Yellowing will begin to spread and the whole frond will bend and be seen hanging through leaves that are still green due to breakage near the base of the frond.
As younger leaves age, they too will go through these stages.
At the advanced stage of the disease, look for a yellowed, broken leaf mid-section hanging through green fronds and new green fronds emerging from the top of the crown.
5.11.18 Coconut leaf spots
Coconut leaf spots, Pseudoepicoccum cocos, (brown leaf spot), occurs in Philippines India, Pestalotiopsis palmarum, (grey palm leaf spot)
Phylum: Ascomycota, Class: Ascomycetes
Powdery black masses of spores are usually evident on lower surface.
Conidiophores arise from brown stromata on lower surface of a leaf.
The occur world wide and especially in the Pacific islands.
The brown leaf spot appears as oval spots on the upper surface of older leaves, up to 10 mm long, grey with and brown margins.
On the lower surface of the leaves black masses of microscopic spores develop.
The grey leaf spots are up to 15 mm long, grey with a brown border.
The spores of the leaf spots are distributed by rain and wind.
The leaf spots do most damage to older leaves, not the nuts.
The hybrid MAWA (Malayan Dwarf x West African Tall) may be particularly susceptible to this disease.
These diseases do not severely reduce yields of coconuts.
Fungicide are not recommended.
5.11.19 Mealybugs
Cacao mealybug, Coffee mealybug, Oriental cacao mealybug, Lilac mealybug, Planococcus lilacinus, can attack cocoa, coffee, tamarind, custard apple, coconut, citrus.
Pineapple mealybug, Dysmicoccus brevipes, feeds on roots and underground part of the stem and causes slow growth, small fruit and sooty moulds on the fronds and possible infection of nearby pineapples.
Striped mealybug, Ferrisia virgata occur on underside of leaves and at growing points, vector of Cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV).
It can be spread through transport of planting material.
Prune off any infected parts am burn them.
Allow other insects, e.g. wasps access to them for biological control.
Avoid planting coconut palms too close together.
Spiked mealybug, coconut mealybug, Nipaecoccus nipae
Adult females and immatures feed on the sap of the host plant.
Honeydew secretions produced during feeding may result in black, sooty mould growth.
The presence of sooty mould can result in reduced photosynthesis, defoliation, and occasional death of a young plant.
5.11.20 Coconut seedling blight
Coconut seedling blight, Bipolaris incurvata and Bipolaris setariae
It occurs in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Pacific Islands.
In the nursery, brown leaf spots grow up to 15 mm long, causing a yellow leaf blight of weak seedling.
Spores from the leaf spots are spread by wind and rain.
Control with nurseries which have sufficient water, correct nutrition, especially potassium, and enough space for the seedlings to grow.
Reduce the shade level of nurseries to zero.
The fungicides chlorothalonil, copper oxychloride, mancozeb are effective controls.
Seedlings are not affected after transfer to the field.
5.11.21 Coconut spathe bug
Coconut spathe bug, Axiagastus cambell, Order: Hemiptera, Family: Pentatomidae
It occurs mainly in Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and Solomon Islands.
The adults are dark brown with yellow marks, about 15 mm long, feed on male and female flowers.
The adult lays white eggs on the flowers and on the base of the fronds.
They give out a distinct smell when disturbed.
Eggs hatch in 8 days.
The nymphs are first white then orange with black markings.
Damage is restricted to loss of a few young nuts.
The weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina and the fire ant Wasmannia auropunctata, may provide control.
Chemical control is not recommended.
5.11.22 Coconut spike moth
See diagram 53.27: Tirathaba rufivena
Coconut spike moth, oil palm bunch moth, Tirathaba rufivena, occurs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
The adults, with brown narrow forewings and yellow hindwings, live for up to 10 days and lay eggs are at the base of the flowers.
The eggs hatch in 6 days.
The brown-grey caterpillars, with dark brown heads are up to 30 mm in length.
They eat male flowers and later bore into the female flowers, causing them to drop.
Pupae are found in a cocoon formed by eating debris.
This infection has little effect on coconut production, because coconuts naturally shed about 50% of the nutlets formed.
The hybrid MAWA (Malayan Dwarf x West African Tall) may be particularly susceptible to this moth.
Chemical control is not recommended.
5.11.23 Coconut stick insect
Coconut stick insect, Graeffea crouanii
See diagram 53.26: Graeffea crouanii
It occurs in Pacific Islands and it infects coconut palm, sago palm, pandanus and other palms.
The adults eat the leaflets from older leaves, leaving the midribs.
The adult males have wings and can fly.
The green females are up to 120 mm long and the brown males are up to 70 mm long.
Eggs are laid in the crown of the palms and fall to the leaf litter on the ground.
They hatch in about 12-16 weeks.
The nymphs crawl up the trunks from the ground to eat the leaflets above.
Both adults and nymphs feed at night.
Defoliation damage is worse on palms that are over 25 m tall.
Look for leaflets eaten at the margins.
Some control is given by birds, ants, e.g. the big-headed ant Pheidole megacephala, wasps, and other insects, if the stick insects to fall to the ground.
Use horticultural glue bands around the trunks, e.g. "Tanglefoot" to prevent the nymphs from crawling up to the coconut leaves.
Clear away weeds under coconuts.
Ask an agriculture extension officer for advice about control of stick insects using synthetic pyrethroid insecticides.
5.11.24 Coconut termite
See diagram 53.25: Neotermes rainbowi
Coconut termite, Neotermes rainbowi, and Neotermes samoanus attack the wood of the trunk of living coconut palms.
New colonies are established in the wood by a pair of male and female winged adults which enter cracks or holes in the trunk.
The female queen lays eggs which hatch nymphs to become workers or soldiers with large head and dark mandibles, which are easy to recognise.
The infection starts at the base of the trunk, just above where the roots form.
Holes and cavities in the trunk fill with frass, chewed wood and faeces until the base of trunk become weak and may break in strong winds.
When characteristic net-like grooves form in the bark of the trunk remove and burn that coconut palm.
Prevent infection by checking planting palms transported from other places and check nearby other species of palms, e.g. Pandanas sp. which may be a potential source of infection.
There are no resistant varieties of coconut palms and no chemical control is recommended.
5.11.25 Coconut thread blight
Coconut thread blight, Corticium penicillatum occurs in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
This fungus occurs first on the underside of a leaflet, then its threads go from leaflet to leaflet, causing all, but midrib of the frond to become dry and rot.
The older fronds have patches of dead leaflets, with white threads over them.
Control by not planting coconuts beneath shade or using close spacing, unless planting intercrops.
Less infection occurs in windy places or on hill slopes facing the morning sun.
Cut off and burn infected leaves.
Chemical control is not recommended.
5.11.26 Aspergillus mould
Aspergillus mould, copra mould, Aspergillus flavus survives in decomposed plant material in th soil.
It occurs in the Pacific region, especially Fiji, Samoa, and Solomon Islands.
It infects seeds, but is mostly occurs as a post-harvest mould of copra.
It has been recorded as a neck rot of onions, and on peanuts, maize. and stored grains of rice.
5.11.27 Coconut scale and false scale
Coconut scale, transparent scale, Aspidiotus destructor and coconut false scale A. rigidus, attach to the under surface of the leaflets and kills patches of tissue by sucking out the cell contents.
Use spotted ladybird beetles, Coleomegilla maculata for biocontrol.
It occurs more in drought years, with temperatures up to 31°C and humidity >85%.
It can survive in plant residues in the soil.
It gives stored copra a yellow-green colour and contains aflatoxins, which can cause liver damage in humans and livestock.
Control the infection by harvesting only mature brown coconuts, not green nuts.
Do the splitting of nuts for making copra only on sunny day for up to 5 days to obtain 6% moisture content.
Test the copra for 6% moisture content by pressing the thumb against the meat (kernel, endosperm), and let go so it drops does not stick to the thumb.
Store copra under a good airflow and do not let it get wet.
Treat seeds with mancozeb before planting.
Examine stored copra for any greenish-yellow mould.
Ensure adequate plant nutrition of coconut palms by applying fertilizer or farmyard manure at recommended rates.
5.11.28 Coconut mite
Coconut mite, Aceria guerreronis is a tiny mite, only 1/1000 of a millimetre, found under bracts or perianth of fertilised female flowers or the nut.
The female lays eggs into colonies, which hatch to nymphs, which become pale worm-like adults with two pairs of legs.
The nymphs and adults cause pale yellow patches which will turn brown over much of the nut.
The nuts which will be stunted and probably fall to the ground before maturity, should be collected and burnt.
Plant coconut varieties resistant to coconut mites, e.g Malayan Green and Yellow Dwarf.
Allow natural predators to flourish.
Purchase and use mycoacaricides (fungus-based mite pesticides).
Chemical control is difficult to apply, but farmers have used neem oil + teepol, or neem oil + Neem Azal, or neem oil + ground garlic.
Red palm mite, Raoiella indica
5.13.1 Desiccated coconut
Desiccated coconut is coconut meat which has been shredded or flaked, with most moisture removed.
It is sold as coconut desiccated.
Coconut flour is made from desiccated coconut and is sold as coconut fruit powder.
Desiccated coconut is very popular for cooking, confectionery, bakery products, including the covering of chocolate-coated cakes for children, e.g. the Australian "lamington" cake.
It is made by drying shredded pieces of pared meat (kernel, endosperm), of fully matured fresh coconut after the removal of the brown testa.
It can be eaten by humans without further processing and it has a natural white colour, sweet pleasant taste and smell.
The sweet smell of coconut meat is caused by lactones, but the nutty tastes of roasted coconut is caused by pyrazines and pyrroles.
5.13.2 Coconut cake stock feed
After extraction of oil from the copra the waste can be used for stock feed.
Similarly, the coconut left after making coconut milk or cream can be eaten by humans as a snack.
5.13.3 Coconut cooking
Coconut oil is mainly used for frying in refined oil.
1. To 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 or longer while stirring.
Beat the mixture until it thickens and pour it into a damp dish.
2. To make a coconut banana smoothie, put 2 ripe bananas, 1 cup of coconut milk, 1 cup of cow's milk, 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream and 2 tablespoons of honey in a blender and blend until smooth.
3. To make a coconut lemon cake, put 125 g unsalted butter and 1 cup of castor sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy.
Add 1 tablespoon of finely grated lemon rind or lime rind.
Add lightly beaten eggs and beat the mixture until all ingredients are combined.
Fold 1 cup of sifted self-raising flour, 1 cup of desiccated coconut and 1 cup of cow's milk into the mixture.
Put the mixture into a lightly greased and lined pan then place in a 10oC preheated oven for 50 minutes.
Serve the cake warm.
4. To make coconut jam (kaya), whisk together eggs and sugar over low heat.
Add thick coconut milk and keep stirring over low heat.
It becomes brown-green with the consistency of custard.
In Malaysia, drops of Padan essence are added for extra flavour and it turns green.
Some people do not like it if it is too sweet.
5. To make coconut scones, use 3 cups of self raising flour, 1 tablespoon of castor sugar, 1 cup of coconut cream and 1 cup of milk.
Mix and cut into scone shapes.
Bake in oven at 200oC.
5.13.4 Coconut cream and coconut milk
1. Coconut milk and cream are not prepared by boiling the mashed up kernel, but rather by pressing the material (at the kitchen level), in a cloth.
Hot water is often added after the first press (which produces the creamier output), allowing a second pressing that delivers "milk".
Commercially, there is mechanical pressing to generate thick cream and then various degrees of dilution are used to give diminishing fat content from 33% in cream down to maybe % in "lite".
2. Coconut cream and coconut milk are both infusions of shredded coconut in water.
Coconut meat is pounded or broken up by an electric blender to form a paste.
Water is added then strained to remove solids, then left to stand and separate into a thick cream layer and a thin skim layer.
Coconut milk can also be made from dry shredded coconut or it can be purchased from a supermarket.
Coconut cream is thicker and more paste-like than coconut milk.
Some people use milk to make it thicker.
Coconut milk is a liquid.
Coconut cream is rich in medium chain fatty acids and is used in the alcoholic drink Pina Colada.
The creamed coconut sold in food stores is very concentrated coconut extract.
It is a solid block at a low room temperature and can be made into coconut cream or coconut milk by mixing it with water.
3. Coconut milk contains aromatic compounds plus oils.
It contains about 20% fat, while the more concentrated coconut cream contains up to 33% fat.
Coconut milk may be used directly as a side dish with curries or a dressing for raw fish, as a refreshing drink, and in curry recipes.
Coconut milk can be bought in tins and in packaged drinks in liquid and powdered form.
Frozen coconut cream is sold in packets especially by Asian food suppliers.
Dissolve the frozen block in hot water or chop it into pieces up and stir them directly into the curry towards the end of the cooking time.
Never reheat any curry after adding the coconut!
4. Coconut cream is what would eventually float to the top of the milk, and can be a semisolid at room temperature.
Use 1 cup of water with 2 cups of scraped coconut.
Leave to stand in a refrigerator.
The cream will rise to the top and harden.
Skim off the cream.
5. Add a cup of coconut water or hot water to grated coconut meat.
Leave to stand, and then squeeze with your hands.
Put it into cheesecloth or a strainer.
Squeeze out the coconut cream.
6. 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.
7. Simmer gently for 2 minutes over low heat a 4:1 mixture of shredded fresh or desiccated coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), and water.
Stir continuously until foamy.
Strain the liquid and squeeze the coconut with cheese cloth.
Refrigerate the mixture to help the cream separate and set.
8. Simmer equal volumes of shredded coconut and water or milk until froth forms.
Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth.
Squeeze out most of the liquid, i.e. the coconut milk.
The thick coconut cream forms a separate layer above the coconut milk.
9. Commercially prepared coconut cream in cans or other hygienic packaging may have an emulsifier added to thicken it.
It may be found at the top of canned coconut milk.
Canned coconut milk and coconut cream are available as full fat and low fat products in Asian and Indian food stores.
One whole coconut fruit is about equivalent to a 140 mL can of coconut milk.
Coconut cream can be used as a thickener in sauces.
5.13.5 Coconut husks, coir
Coir, Daley's Fruit Trees
1. The outer fibrous covering of the coconut (the mesocarp), is used for producing coir matting and rope.
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.
Pull off the outer skins to get the fibres (coir), used to make door mats, brooms, boat fenders, ropes and fibre board.
Use husks for mulch and fuel.
Long fibres in the petioles can be made into strings.
2. Coir pith fibres and coir dust (coconut dust), are used in plant nursery potting mixes as an alternative to peat moss.
The main coir producers are India and Sri Lanka where the cost of labour is low.
Recovering the fibre from the husk, and spinning and weaving the fibre is difficult and labour intensive.
The light weight cellulose structure of coconut dust make it an ideal medium for transplanting seedlings if bacterial and fungal diseases are present in the soil.
Coir seed raising blocks contain coconut fibre + NPK salts + micronutrients.
Coir peat bricks, 100% coir, are added to soil to improve soil texture and structure, break up hard clay and improve water holding capacity of sandy soils.
Coconut pellets and the larger coconut grow blocks are discs of coir to contain one seed and which swell with addition of water.
3. Coconut coir potting media (coco pith, coir mulch), a lightweight, soil-less growing medium made from the fibres between a ripe coconuts shell and outer surface, is used by nurseries, hydroponic growers and home gardeners.
Add 20 litres of water for a coir block to expand to 60 litres of potting media, or it can be used alone or mixed with other potting media, e.g. sand, perlite, compost, slow-release fertilizer, and can hold water, while keeping a well-balanced air-fill porosity in the root zone.
See diagram 53.20: Coir for sale in bags
5.13.6 Coconut leaves (fronds)
Use the leaflets and midribs to make plaited baskets, hats, mats, fans, toys, tongs, fences and decorations.
Use the leaf stalks for fuel.
Leaves are used for constructing shelters and in basket weaving, etc.
Dried coconut leaves can be burnt to ash and harvested for lime.
5.13.7 Coconut oil as a biofuel
Coconut oil has been used as a diesel engine fuel for power generation and boats.
Coconut oil has a high gelling temperature, 22oC-25oC, high viscosity, so it is usually blended with diesel oil to make biodiesel e.g. 50% diesel and 50% D.M.E. coconut oil.
The coconut oil must be pure to avoid carbonization and clogging in the engine.
Engines modified to use pure coconut oil may have an auxiliary tank of diesel oil for starting the engine.
Coconut oil has been successfully used as an engine lubricant.
5.13.8 Coconut shell-based products and wood-based products
Use the shells for cups, scoops, lamp bowls and small ukuleles.
Polish and carve shell to make ornaments, e.g. earrings.
Bury burning shells to make charcoal fuel.
Burn shells to dry the coconut meat (kernel, endosperm), fish and other foods.
Coconut shell powder is used by artisans to polish fine carvings.
Timber (called porcupine wood), is used in buildings.
5.13.9 Coconut toddy, palm wine, (arrack), kava
Piper methysticum, kava, kava kava, Piperaceae, pepper family
1. Dihydrokarvain, (C14H16O3), a kavalactone, anxiolytic, in kava Piper methystichum.
Kawwain, Karvane, Gonosand, (C14H14O3), alpha-pyrone, plant metabolite, spasmolytic, local anaesthetic, anti-inflammatory, antimicotic, anti-oedemic, in kava Piper methystichum.
Methysticin, Kavatin, (C15H14O5), an alpha-pyranone, an aromatic ether, spasmolytic, in kava Piper methysticum.
Yangonin, (C15H14O4), a 2-pyrone, an aromatic ether, irritant, in kava Piper methysticum root, possible liver damage from use of kava in food.
Piperaceae (pepper family), Piper nigrum, pepper, black pepper, Piper methysticum, kava.
The inflorescence is tapped for palm juice and is fermented producing palm wine, toddy.
Toddy is distilled to produce the alcoholic spirit called arrack.
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.
2. 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, palm wine or 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 (jaggery).
In Fiji, an semi-intoxicating drink is made with fermented coconut milk and the root of Piper methystichum (kava).
5.13.10 Coconut sugar
1. One of the new types of sweeteners is a 450 g bag of "Nutriva" coconut sugar, made from coconut tree sap collected from coconut flower buds.
This sap is also colleted by boys in Kiribati.
2. Desiccated coconut powder is made by spray drying methods.
The main producers are the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Strict standards of food safety are needed to ensure no contamination by Salmonella.
Processed coconut flesh is available as flaked, desiccated and powdered form.
Store desiccated coconut in a sealed container.
5.13.11 Coconut trunk
Use palms over 25 years old for supporting poles and building posts, because they have dense wood in the lower two thirds of the trunk.
Get the denser outer wood sawn in a sawmill to produce timber for making attractive furniture, wooden boxes, structural framing for housing, firewood and charcoal or activated carbon.
Senile coconut palms can be logged as timber.
In the Pacific islands, an estimated 40% of coconut palms are senile, many being planted in plantations before 1940 in coconut plantations.
However, the largest resources of senile palms are in Indonesia, the Philippines and India.
5.13.12 Coconut weather station
See diagram 53.1: Weather station, Hawaii
5.13.13 "Copha"
"Copha" is an Australian brand of semi-solid hydrogenated coconut oil used to make food for children's parties, e.g. chocolate crackles.
In other countries hydrogenated coconut fat products include "Kremelta" (New Zealand), "Végétaline" (France), and "Palmin" (Germany).
Coconut oil is heat stable, so it is suited to methods of cooking at high temperatures.
It is slow to oxidize and resistant to rancidity.
Coconut oils melt at 24C so foods containing coconut oil tend to melt in warm climates, e.g. Australia.
So for warm climates, the oil is hydrogenated to attain a melting point of 36C to 40C to form Copha.
The higher melting point is caused by the saturation of the remaining unsaturated fats in the oil.
The high melting point of chocolate is stearic oil, the largest common saturated fatty acid.
Hydrogenated linoleic acid in Copha has physical properties quite similar to stearic acid, because they have equal chain length.
Some cooks mix Copha with cocoa to gain a higher melting point.
Children at children's parties have been known to vomit after eating too many chocolate crackles.
Chocolate Crackles recipe
Use 250g "Copha", 4 cups of "Rice Bubbles" (puffed rice), 1 cup of icing sugar, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, and 1 cup of desiccated coconut.
Melt "Copha" in a saucepan over a low heat or in a microwave oven.
Mix dried ingredients.
Mix with melted "Copha" until well combined.
Spoon mixture evenly into 24 paper patty containers.
Set in the refrigerator.
5.13.14 Heart of palm
Heart of palm is the inner parts of the growing apex of the palm, apical buds, where the next generation of fronds and flowers are developing.
It consists of pith that can be eaten raw in salads or cooked in stir fry cooking.
Extracting the heart kills the palm, so it appears wasteful, but surplus young palms may be available, especially in abandoned plantations.
Heart of palms is canned as "palm hearts".
5.13.15 Makapuno coconuts
Makapuno (Philippine), coconuts, kopyor (Indonesian), coconuts
See diagram 53.31: Makapuno coconuts
The Philippine Makapuno is a form of coconut with soft meat, is much sought after for its versatile role in the preparation of dessert.
The liquid endosperm (coconut water), is replaced by a dense viscous fluid or solid soft meat, to give the Philippine name "makapuno".
In Thailand a less dense variety of makapuno has soft meat in layers dispersed in the viscous endosperm.
Dr. Uthai of Bangkok Flower Center conducted a process called embryo rescue and planted the "rescued" plants at "Makapuno Island".
The island was created when the Thai government constructed a dam near the Burmese border.
All the coconut trees in the island were destroyed by the dam construction and embryo-rescued Makapuno Trees were planted.
No stray coconut pollen can reach the island, because of the water barrier, so that all the trees produced 100 % Makapuno fruits.
A few years back, the Makapuno Island in Kanjanaburi received a complaint that one of their 100 % guaranteed Makapuno fruits germinated.
The owner investigated and upon opening the fruit, it turned out to be Makapuno.
This began a search for the mother tree that bore the germinating Makapuno fruit.
Makapuno has a double recessive trait that converts the coconut meat into soft endosperm coupled with absence or reduced liquid endosperm.
The endosperm normally cannot be metabolized by the growing Makapuno embryo inside the Makapuno seed and therefore incapable of germination.
As the evolutionary process is continually unfolding, one individual Makapuno was somehow able to develop enzymes to digest and metabolize the endosperm, thereby effecting germination.
The plant grows like normal coconut, but has the soft solid endosperm of the normal Makapuno.
The oldest method of propagating Makapuno is by planting the "kabuwig" (from same bunch).
This ensures that the recessive genes of the Makapuno will surface in the next generation when trees are planted near each other.
The resulting trees give low yield of Makapuno due to the dominant stray pollens from normal coconuts.
5.13.16 Sprouting coconuts
Although they can drift for months in sea water, a mature coconut will usually sprout through the active eye within two months of falling.
Nourished by the stored water and energy of the meat (kernel, endosperm), the nut sprouts very vigorously and soon afterwards roots protrude down through the husk too.
Over about four months during germination, the nut is progressively filled with a sort of spongy yellow/white mass that slowly absorbs the meat.
This "apple" has a slightly sweet taste and is eaten raw or boiled, or the husked "grow nut", with one eye pierced, can be baked whole.
Character
|
Talls
|
Dwarfs
|
Bearing
|
Continuous
|
Irregular
|
Bearing time
|
5-7 years
|
3-4 years
|
Fruit size
|
to large
|
to medium
|
Harvesting
|
Difficult
|
Easy
|
Height, mature
|
15-22 m
|
< m
|
Intercropping
|
Legumes
|
Cattle
|
Productive life
|
<50 years
|
<30 years
|
Senile age
|
70 years
|
40 years
|
Death of palm
|
100 years
|
< 50 years
|
Logging use
|
High
|
Low
|
Oil content
|
66-70%
|
65%
|
Planting distance
|
7-10 m
|
5.5 m
|
Planting density
|
160/ha
|
330/ha
|
Pollination
|
Cross
|
Self
|
Storm damage
|
Low
|
High
|
Use
|
Wide
|
Limited
|
Yield, plantation
|
9, 700 nuts/ha
|
11, 000 nuts/ha
|
Yield, plantation
|
150 g copra/nut
|
90-120 g copra/nut
|
Yield, plantation
|
2. tonnes copra/ha
|
2.9 tonnes copra/ha
|
Yield, smallholder
|
0.9 tonnes copra/ha
|
little used
|