ADDED INFORMATION ABOUT COCONUT TREES INCLUDING DWARFVARIETIES - FORWARD Dear friends,
I had heard a few years back about Dwarfvariety of coconut trees. But leaves were spreading more to sides inthe picture. I made a google search and information in detail I could get along with details of coconut palm. I thoughtof forwarding to groups Sincerely, Gopala krishnan14-5-2021 Tamil Nadu Agricultural University-ExpertSystem for Coconut-Coconut Botany & Varieties Coconut Botany &Varieties Varieties The culturalpractices have to be adopted to suit the varying climatic and soil conditions. Varieties: There are only two distinct varieties ofcoconut, the tall and the dwarf. The tall cultivars that areextensively grown are the West Coast Tall and East Coast Tall. The dwarfvariety is shorter in stature and its life span is short as compared to thetall. Tall Varieties- Dwarf Varieties- HybridVarieties Tall VarietiesCharacteristics: Long lived palmliving generally to an age of about 80 to 90 years Palms thrive wellunder different soil conditions varying from littoral sands to red loams andlaterites. Palms grow well up toan altitude of 3,000 ft. above the sea level. It is fairly resistant todiseases and pests. The tree attains aheight of about 15m to 18m or more It begins to bear inabout 8 to 10 years after planting My note- A coconut palm planted in 2006 has started firstflowering now in my home. The nut is medium tobig in size varying in shape from spheroid to linear-oblong and with colorsvarying from green, yellow and orange to shades of brown. About 6,000 nuts yield a ton of copra. List of Tall Varieties: (Click the respective tallvariety to view its details) West coast tall East coast tall Chandrakalpa or Lakshadweep ordinary (LCT) Philippines Ordinary (Kerachandra) VPM – 3 (Andaman Ordinary) Aliyar Nagar 1 Tiptur Tall Kera sagara (Seychelles) Suitable varietiesfor Tamil Nadu: West Coast Tall, Chandrakalpa or Lakshadweep ordinary (LCT),VPM – 3 (Andaman Ordinary), East coast tall ,Aliyar Nagar 1, Kera Chandra(Philippines Ordinary) Suitable Varietiesfor Kerala: West coast tall, Chandrakalpa or Lakshadweep ordinary (LCT),Philippines Ordinary (Kerachandra), VPM – 3 (Andaman Ordinary), Kera Sagara(Seychelles) Suitable varietiesfor Karnataka: West Coast Tall, Tiptur Tall (TPT), Chandrakalpa or Lakshadweepordinary (LCT), VPM – 3 (Andaman Ordinary), Kera Chandra (Philippines Ordinary) DwarfVarieties-Characteristics: The dwarf coconut issmall in stature (5-7 m) and commences bearing earlier than the tall variety Dwarf coconut palmsflower as early as the third year after planting and come to regular bearing inthe ninth year. The average life span is 40-50 years. Dwarf or shortvariety which producing green, orange and yellow nuts. Susceptible to drought. Nuts are small in size and ovoid or round in shape Nut weighs about 3 oz(85 gm) with 65 per cent oil content. List of DwarfVarieties: ( Chowghat Orange Dwarf(COD) Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) Suitable varietiesfor Tamil Nadu: Chowghat Orange Dwarf (COD), Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) Suitable Varietiesfor Kerala: Chowghat Orange Dwarf (COD), Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) Suitable varietiesfor Karnataka: Chowghat Orange Dwarf (COD) Hybrid Varieties Hybrids are theintervarietal crosses of two morphological forms of coconut. They show earliness in floweringand give increased yield, higher quantity and better quality of copra and oilwhen compared to the parents. When the tall is used as female they arecalled T*D hybrid while the reciprocal is known as D*T hybrid. Hybridsperform well under good management conditions including nutrient management andirrigation. Characteristics: Hybrids are theintervarietal crosses between the two morphological forms of coconut. They exhibit earliness in flowering, increased nutyield, higher copra production and give better quality copra and oil ascompared to the parents. Hybrids are produced in two ways, with tall asfemale parent and dwarf as male parent (Tall x Dwarf) or dwarf as female parentand tall as male parent (Dwarf x Tall). Besides intervarietal hybrids like Tall x Tall and Dwarfx Dwarf are also produced. List of Hybrid Varieties: (Click the respective tallvariety to view its details) Kerasankara (WCT x COD) Chandrasankara (COD x WCT) Chandralaksha (LCT x COD) Keraganga (WCT x GBGD) Lakshaganga (LCT x GBGD) Anandaganga (ADOT x GBGD) Kerasree (WCT x MYD) Kerasoubhagya (WCT x SSAT) VHC 1 (ECT x MGD) VHC 2 (ECT x MYD) VHC 3 (ECT x MOD) Suitable varietiesfor Tamil Nadu: Kerasankara (WCT x COD), Chandrasankara (COD x WCT),Kerasoubhagya (WCT x SSAT), VHC 1(ECT x MGD), VHC 2(ECT x MYD), VHC 3(ECT xMOD) Suitable Varietiesfor Kerala: Kerasankara(WCT x COD), Chandrasankara (COD x WCT),Chandralaksha(LCT x COD), Keraganga (WCT x GBGD), Lakshaganga (LCT x GBGD),Anandaganga(ADOT x GBGD), Kerasree (WCT x MYD), Kerasoubhagya (WCT x SSAT) Suitable varietiesfor Karnataka: Kerasankara (WCT x COD), Chandrasankara (COD x WCT),Chandralaksha (LCT x COD), Kerasoubhagya (WCT x SSAT) BOTANICAL CLASSIFICATION Division : Phanerogams Sub-Division : Angiosperms Class : Monocotyledons Series : Calycieae Order : Arecales Family : Arecaceae Genus : Cocos Species : nucifera (L) Varieties : (a) Cocos nucifera L.Var.typica (Tall) (b) Cocos nucifera L.Var nana (Dwarf) One of the most useful plants is the coconut palm, Cocosnucifera, which is grown around the world in lowlandtropical and subtropical habitats. From this species we can get many naturalproducts, including foods, drinks, fibers, building materials, and chemicals.. The plant is afeather palm, which means that its leaves are pinnately compound (like afeather); these leaves are frequently used in thatching. The long trunk of thetree is used for building supports. Coconut palms are anexcellent source of food for native peoples in the tropics. Fruits are rich in calories and essentialvitamins. This fiber is called the coir and is used for making mats andrope. The shell is used forcontainers and is widely employed by artisans to make ornaments anddecorations. The solid endosperm, copra, is harvested, dried, and then pressedto release the oil, widely used for chief ingredients of shampoo and hair conditioners. The Roots The palm hasadventitious roots continually produced from the base of the trunk, which isthe swollen part or what is termed 'bole', in tall types and in some dwarf hybrids. It has no taproot orroot hairs but has lots of primary roots which bear large quantities ofrootlets. The main roots grow out somewhat horizontally from the boleand are mostly found within the topsoil. The main branches grow deeper and mayextend laterally to as much as 10 m. The roots, having nocambium, are noticeably uniform - the main roots reaching a maximum diameter ofabout 1 cm. The root tip is the actively growing region and behind it is theabsorbing area whose epidermis is a single layer of thin-walled cells thatgradually thicken and become impervious with age. In old roots, the epidermis disintegrates and exposes thehard hypodermis which is generally red. The root centre has astele surrounded by a single-celled pericycle sheath from which rootlets andaerenchymatous (respiratory exchange) protuberances or pneumatophores arise. The respiratory exchange occursmore abundantly nearer the soil surface to allow easy diffusion of root. STEM The stem is called asTrunk It is unbranched, erect, stoutand cylindrical The leaf baseencircles the stem as they have scars with pit mark on the trunk The scars are helpful in determining the age of the tree.Based on these 12 to 14 scars, the age can be computed for a year First few years there is increased growth in thethickness of the stem The girth remainsuniform for a number of years and finally tapers in growth when the tree growsvery old The trunk carries abig crown with large sized leaves and bunches of fruits LEAF The leaves arecrowded together at the top of the trunk in the form of a crown The young leafappears in the centre of the crown as a pointed structure having all the leavesclosely held together It takes five months for the complete development of aleaf from the time of initiation to its complete emergence The crown has 15 openleaves, 15 youngee leaves in different stages of development The leaf consists ofmany leaflets arranged obliquely on the mid-rib or rachis Each leaflet is long,linear, has a strong mid-rib with narrow lamina and parallel venation The petiole is flat,very thick, broad and sheather with fibre at the base and encircles the stem INFLORESCENCE It takes 34 months for the inflorescence to develop fromthe initiation to the opening of the spathe The spadix is stoutand erect, enclosed by the tough spathe which splits when infloresecence ismature The axis of the inflorescence is branched, with thebranches bearing sessile flowers, both staminateand pistillate • The palm is monoceious with male and female flowers on thesame plant Staminate flowers aresmall, numerous and are arranged closely on the secondary branches of theinflorescence They have sixperinathe lobes in two whorls.and the outer perinath are small, the innerperinath is bigger Stamens are six and plenty of pollen is produced. Anabortive psitillate or rudimentary ovary is present in the staminate flower.The pollen grains are spherical in shape and are smooth Pistillate flowersare at about the base of the branches substened by one or two staminate flowers They are smallspherical structure known as ‘button’ Six perinath lobes intwo whorls arranged imbricate and more or less of the same size and shape The perinath isrounded, concave and whitish, the stigma is found at the base of the ovary FRUIT Once pollination andfertilization occur, fruits set and develop to maturity in about 12 months, or less than 1 year forsome dwarf cultivars. A count of bunch and fruit set can give a reasonableestimate of yield. Fruit is drupe,having three regions and one seeded .On the outside is the husk, The fruit is developed from a tricarpellaryovary The outer layers of pericarp are fibrous,called as huskwhich is initially green but turns brown after being pickedand dried. • The endocarp is very hard and forms the shell Within the endocarp, soft white endosperm enclosinginside a big cavity filled with extra-cellular fluid calledas "coconut milk."The seed coat, which is thin, and then the white flesh or copra .Both the copraand the milk are the endosperm of this seed. Initially the milk isfairly sweet and the copra is thin, but as the seed matures, the liquid isconverted into solid endosperm rich in oils (triglycerides). The endosperm or thekernel has also contains sucrose, fructose, galactose, glucose and raffinose The moisture contentin the kernel diminishes as the maximum quantity of oil is formed when the nutsare 9-10 months old Liquid endospermcontains large quantities of cytokine hormone which is useful to grow plants intest tubes from single cells and this develops into embryos. My note- Herecoconut water is told as coconut milk Tamil Nadu-New variety of coconut ready-FORWARDR. Vimal Kumar Tirupur:, April 03, 2015 00:00 IST Coconut DevelopmentBoard is planning to set up a parasite breeding centre, and a pest forecastingcentre in Udumalpetas part of the research activities planned at its recently opened seedproduction cum demonstration farm there. This would helpfarmers, as pest control measures could increase the yield of coconut. In anothersignificant development, the first set of 25,000 seedlings of high yieldingvarieties of coconut raised at the Udumalpet farm is getting ready for distribution. “We will be distributing the seedlings offour dwarf varieties of coconut — Malaysian orange, Malaysian green, Malaysianyellow, and Chavakkad orange —andone tall variety, West Coast Tall. All are suitable for the farming conditionsin Tamil Nadu,” said R. Deepthi, farm manager at the board’s farm in Udumalpet. The dwarf varieties would be promoted, as they could givebetter quality tender coconuts. Besides, tree climbers were not needed to pluck coconuts. The seedlings would be sold at almost half of the marketprice. The board has plansto produce more hybrid seedlings that are conducive for cultivation in theregion. The board is now creating demonstration plots at the farmto explain intercropping. Lemon, papaya, spices, andvegetables can be raised in this manner in the space available between twococonut trees. “We normallyrecommend 7.5m gap between two trees,” Ms. Deepthi said. Available at Udumalpet farm of CoconutBoard-Will be sold at half the market price -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/273406343.414528.1621007923181%40mail.yahoo.com.
