SETTING UP OF LOW COST COCONUT HYBRIDIZATION FARM THROUGH NATURAL CROSSING WITH AN AID OF WIND AND BEE – A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS IDEA IN COCONUT FARMING – AN INNOVATIVE PROGRAM TO PRODUCE DWARF Vs TALL HYBRID COCONUT IN THE FARMERS’ FIELD …
1.plant 4 years old best tall coconut seedlings like tiptur tall or west coast tall at 25 feet distance in between plants and plant Malaysian yellow dwarf plant of 7 to 9 months old seedlings in alternate row. One row Tall and alternate row dwarf coconut seedlings …This bring both type of coconut plants to flowering in nearly same time ie, synchronization. If dwarf plants comes to flowering remove all the flowers until it become 3 years old that after three years the Malaysian yellow dwarf produce healthy and fertile inflorescence and Tall coconut plant also start producing fertile pollen. The tall plant are hetrozygous due to cross pollination behaviour because of time difference in the maturity of female as well as male flowers…But the dwarf coconut plants are homozygous due to self pollination nature…
The plant rows are aligned along the wind direction in order to allow free passage of wind and in 12 location inside the field do set up honey bee hives …Do not spray chemical pesticide in the field or near by field…Also sow sorgum plant or the like around the field if possible . Because it act as foraging plant for the honeybee to survive and maintain viable colony…
The wind and bee facilitate natural crossing…Because the pollination happens for 16 days from the opening of the inflorscence. The wind and honey bee takes the pollen from male flowers to female flowers and during windy days the air takes pollen to female flowers and in the morning and evening hours the bees are active that transfer pollens from male flowers to female flowers …To keep the bees active also build 2 to 3 water tank inside or around the coconut farm …
The 12 months old nuts are collected from dwarf coconut plants and nursery is raised …
Out of 100 seed nuts planted as many as 40 t0 45 nuts gives forth crossed Dwarf Vs Tall hybrid coconut seedlings with good vigour and viability …
The identification parameter is the crossed hybrid coconut seedlings bears/ carry green stinge near the collar region that means the genetic character of tall coconut plants have been transferred to female dwarf coconut plants …The non crossed coconut seedlings will carry complete yellow or red collor near collar region ( petiole base )
Since the sedlings produced from natural crossing looks promising in all the aspect , the resulting hetrosis produce all healthy and potential seedlings…
In this , you can produce 2500 to 3000 crossed nuts which when sown in nursery and sold in the market brings you around Rs. 10 lac to 15 lac per year per acres of seed coconut farm…
And also you can have additional income from coconuts produced in Tall coconut plants and Honey production…
In future inovative idea only will make agriculture lucrative and profitable …This idea will definitely benefit those coconut farmers who are adventurous and willing to explore the nature with scientific thoughts and efforts…Seed coconut farm should be be fertilized 70 % with organic manure and 30 % with chemical fertilizers…
Very good article ramuji… I was wondering what if I raise a nursery of self pollinated coconuts of hybrid trees instead of crossing dwarf with tall trees… Do self pollinated nuts of hybrid trees do not produce quality seedlings…??
Dear vaishak
Cross pollination is a mechanism and method of procreation put in place in coconut by Almighty …Every coconut tree produce spathe which bears both male as well as female flowers in the same inflorescence . But the time lapse in the maturity of male and female flowers is atleast 24 hours .So the pollen grain ( male part ) of the coconut could not fertilize the female part of the same inflorescence …Further the anthesis ( pollen maturity and release of pollen grain from inflorescence ) takes place continuously for a week time vis a vis female flowers maturity progress in the same order …
It is the reason why cross pollination takes place in coconut …ie, fertilization of female flowers with the pollen grains of male flowers from another coconut plant …
Further hybrid means production of a high and superior quality coconut plant as a result of cross fertilization between two different coconut plants having different and unique characters present in each parent plant …when cross fertilization takes place all the unique and superior characters from both plants are transferred to a single plant that is hybrid scientifically called F1 generation …
When you manually do crossing within same plants , it is called self pollination …with the resulting plants F2 generation that is not hybrid …instead the plants produced by self pollination in same hybrid coconuts is likely to express variation in characters …ie the nursery produced out of the nuts collected from self pollinated hybrid coconut tree will produce seedlings which when planted in the field will not produce uniform yield and size of the fruits…
Self pollination or cross pollination among same group of coconut plants say pollination among dwarf plants itself or among tall plants will not result in improved hybrid…
The hybrid coconut result from pollination between two different coconut plants carrying different characters unique of each coconut plants …
For example when you take malaysian green dwarf as female parent plant and Tiptur tall ( you can take any tall ) as male parent plant and do crossing following will result …
The tiptur tall has unique character of long life say 60 years , Very good kernal setting ( copra ), compact bunches …but no of fruits in tall plants are limited to 100 to 250 per plant per year …and bearing starts late after 7 to 8 years of planting and yield stabilize at 12 the year
And in Malasian green dwarf , the number of fruits per tree per year is in the range of 350 to more than 1000 and tasty and early bearer , producing flowers even in 18 months after planting …but its life is limited to 20 years only and bunches breakdown and no kernal setting ( copra setting ) .
Now Malasian green dwarf as female parent Vs Tiptur tall as male parent in crossing program …
The pollen grain of tiptur tall will carry all the positive characters like long life , good kernal setting , compact bunches to the female flowers of Malasian dwarf plant when crossed …
The resulting plants due to crossing between these coconut plants will bear the characters of both the plants in single plants as below
1.Early bearing say 18 months to 36 months after planting
2.More number of coconuts per plant per year say 350 to 750 nuts
3.Long life say 40 years
4.Good kernal settings say around 230 grams copra content per nut and also improved oil content …
If you make cross or self pollination among these hybrids then resulting plants will show variation in all the above characters like yield, life, copra etc…due to segregation as per Law of John Gregor mendel …
Further the self pollination among the plants reinforce the original characters due to homozygosity of chromosomes …that does not result in hybrid anyway…
A mule is the result of the mating of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare) to produce a hybrid. The much rarer hinny is the result of mating a female donkey (jennet) with a male horse (stallion) although the hinny is much harder to produce than the mule.
So my dear friend , for your personal interest I advise your good self to stop experimenting with your new innovative idea like self pollination among hybrids …
thank you for such an elaborate explanation
A quick dumb question
can one grow Coconut in dist mujafarnagar UP