We have pointed out the necessity of selecting seed trees of known good
bearing habits, and equal care should be exercised in selecting those
the nuts of which are well formed and uniform. This precaution will
suggest itself when one observes that some trees have the habit of
producing a few very large nuts and many of very small and irregular
size and shape, and it is obviously to the planter's interest to lend
no assistance to the propagation and transmission of such traits. In
view of what has been previously stated, it is almost superfluous
earnestly to recommend planters to sow no seeds from young trees. The
principle for this contention--that no seed should be selected except
from trees of established, well-known fruiting habits--would seem to
cover the ground effectually.
The best seed should be selected and picked when perfectly mature and
lowered to the ground. The fall from a lofty tree not infrequently
cracks the inner shell, without giving any external evidence of the
injury. A seed so injured will never sprout and therefore is worthless
for seed purposes.
Freshly collected seed nuts contain in the husk more moisture than
is required to effect germination, and if planted in this condition,
decay is apt to set in before germination occurs. To avoid this the
natives tie them in pairs, sling them over bamboo poles where they are
exposed to the air but sheltered from the sun, and leave them until
well sprouted. It is, however, more expeditious to pile the nuts up in
small heaps of eight to ten nuts, in partial shade, where the surface
nuts may be sprinkled occasionally to prevent complete drying out.
Germination is very erratic, sometimes occurring within a month
and sometimes extending over four, five, or more months. When the
young shoot or plumule (see illustration) has fairly thrust its way
through the fibrous husk it is a good practice to go over the heaps
and segregate those that have sprouted, carefully placing them so
that the growing tip be not deformed or distorted by the pressure
of superincumbent nuts. When these sprouts are 30 to 50 cm. high,
and a few roots have thrust through the husk, they are in the best
possible condition for permanent planting.
First. The original preparation of the land should be good and the
surface tilth at the time of planting irreproachable; i. e., free
from weeds and so mellow that the soil can be closely and properly
pressed around the roots by hand.
Second. The orchard should be securely protected from the invasion of
cattle, etc. It is sometimes impossible to protect orchards against
entry of these animals. If the success of these precautions can not
be assured, then the nuts had better be grown in a closely protected
nursery until about a year old, when the albumen of the seed will be
completely assimilated and will therefore no longer attract vermin,
and when the larger size of the plant will give it more protection
from stray cattle.
In either case planting should be made concurrently with the opening of
the rainy monsoon, during which season further field operations will
not be required except when an intermittent, drier period indicates
the advisability of running the cultivator.
The planting "pit" fetish, in such common use in India, has nothing
to commend it. If stable manures of any kind are available, a good
application at the time of planting will effect wonders in accelerating
the growth of the young plants.
Where the necessary protection is assured, the young seedling planted
out as above recommended should start at once, without check of any
kind, into vigorous growth.
The nursery-grown subject receives an unavoidable setback. Its roots
have been more or less mutilated and, as we may not prune the top
sufficiently to compensate for the root injury, it is generally several
months before the equilibrium of top and root is fully restored. In
most cases, by the end of the second year, it will have been far
outstripped in the growing race by the former.
The history, habits, and characteristics of the cocoanut tree indicate
that it needs a full and free exposure to sun, air, and wind; and,
as it makes a tree, under such circumstances, of wide crown expansion,
these indispensables can not be secured except by very wide planting.
Conventional recommendations cover all distances, from 5 to 8 meters,
with quincunx (i. e., triangular plantings) urged when the 8-meter
plan is adopted. But the writer has seen too many groves spaced at
this distance in good soil, with interlacing leaves and badly spindled
in the desperate struggle for light, air, and sun, ever to recommend
the quincunx, or any system other than the square, at distances not
less than 9 meters and, in good soils, preferably 9.5 meters.
The former distance will allow for 123 and the latter 111 trees to
the hectare. They should be lined out with the greatest regularity, so
as to admit at all times of cross plowing and cultivation as desired.
From this time forward the treatment is one of cultural and manurial
routine.
Annual plowings should not be dispensed with during the life
of the plantation. These plowings may be relatively shallow,
sufficient to cover under the green manures and crops that are made
an indispensable condition to the continued profitable conduct of
the industry. Nothing is to be gained by the removal of the earliest
flowering spikes. Flowering is the congestion of sap at a special point
which, if the grower could control it, he would wish to direct, in the
case of young plants, to the building up of leaf and wood. Cutting the
inflorescence of the cocoanut results in profuse bleeding and, unless
this be checked by the use of a powerful styptic or otherwise, it is
doubtful if the desired end would be accomplished. The earlier crops
of nuts should all be taken with extension cutters or from ladders. No
shoulders for climbing should be cut in any tree, the stem of which
has not become dense, hard, and woody. Cut when the wood is the least
bit succulent, they become inviting points of attack for borers.
With these reservations, there is everything to commend the practice
of shouldering the tree, as offering the safest, most expeditious
and economical way of making it possible to climb and secure the
harvest. It is, of course, understood that the cuts should be made
sloping outward, so as not to collect moisture and invite decay,
and no larger than is strictly necessary for the purpose.