WHY DWARF Vs TALL HYBRID COCONUT TREES ARE SUPERIOR IN YIELD AND INCOME ?
In the world 95 % of the coconut trees are tall varieties .Only 5 % are dwarf varieties . In india west coast tall, east coast tall and tiptur tall are important tall varieties though other tall varieties like laccadive, srilankan , madagasgar and indonesian tall are other tall coconut varieties existing in India . The dwarf varieties cultivated in india are Malaysian yellow dwarf, Malaysian green dwarf , Malaysian organe dwarf and chowghat dwarf …
The Dwarf coconut plant has potential to bear huge number of coconuts . Generally coconut are cross pollinated crops . Though coconut tree is a monocious plant ( both male and female flowers are in same inflorescence ) the self pollination is not possible due to time difference in the maturity of female and male flowers.
Where as in dwarf coconut plants occurrence of self pollination is most predominant and honey due secretion in female flowers is excellent in inviting pollens from male flowers and making fertilization most effective .
Rapid succession of leaves and inflorscence in dwarf coconut plants make it a heavy bearer with huge number of coconuts per tree. The dwarf plants under favorable condition comes to flowering earlier in 18 to 24 months after planting.
The negative side of dwarf coconut tree is shorter life span with 20 to 25 years and poor kernal ( copra ) setting but the tender coconut is tasty and delicious amounting to 600 ml to 1.2 litres per fruit …
In order to reap the benefit of positive characters of this dwarf coconut plants Dwar Vs Tall hybrid coconut plants are produced by crossing dwarf coconut ( as Mother plant ) with superior tall coconut ( As male parent ) .The pollens from male coconut parent plant is collected 24 to 48 hours earlier and it is dusted over the female flowers of dwarf mother plant in the early morning when the female flowers are most receptive with honey dew secretion. The cross fertilized female flowers develop into mature fruit in 12 months with “HETEROSIS “ ( HYBRID VIGOUR ) effect …The nuts collected from crossed dwarf mother plant in such a way is sown in sand bed ( Nursery ) …The nuts grow into seedlings which is ready for planting in 6 months to 1 year period …
Only 55 to 60 % of the crossed nuts gives healthy seedlings …Others needs to be rejected in the nursery …The late comers should not be planted or sold by the nursery man …
The resulting Dwarf Vs Tall hybrid seedlings bears positive characters of both male and female parents .
1.The hybrids are registering moderate growth and moderate succession of leaves and inflorsecence
2.The total number of leaves are 28 to 35 in well grown trees
3.Moderate life of around 30 to 35 years
4.Early bearing in 18 months to 24 months and complete flowering of all the trees in 36 months …
5.Huge fruit set like 300 to 700 fruits per tree per year
6.Unit copra weight of 230 gram to 320 grams depending on the type of hybrids used
7.Tender coconut in each fruit measuring 400 to 650 ML
The identification of Dwarf Vs Tall coconut hybrids
1.It hybrid coconut seedlings shows early leaf spliting
2.The girth of hybrid coconut is significantly more than pure mother coconut seedlings at the collar region with shade of color indicating that the seedlings are crossed one …
3.Because sometime the non crossed nuts might have also been present in the nursery . Eventhough pollen grains were sprayed on female flowers , the corssing might not have been effected due to various reason …
The Hybrid Dwarf Vs Tall coconut plants needs utmost care and management like
1.Better water management- The stress in coconut will close the root canal conducting water and nutrients from plants to female flowers…so the female flowers may fall down.
2.Major , secondary and micro nutrients –The button ( female flowers fall down prematurely due to lack of Boron micronutrient which keeps the conducting canal open and avoid abortion of fertilized female flowers .
3.The secondary nutrients like sulphur is most essential in the emergence and opening of spindle leaf …The deficiency cause choking in hybrid coconut
4.The organic manure plays most important role in mainting sufficient rhizophere …The roots grow to the distance and level where the tip of the coconut leaves extend from the trunk …
5.Bee keeping plays a major role in facilitating pollination thereby enhancing fruit set…
Depending upon the effectiveness of crossing program and the type of parent coconut plants involved and the Good agricultural practices , the Dwarf Vs Tall hybrid coconut plants can give an average yield of 350 nuts per tree per year though individual hybri9d coconut tree might yield more than 600 fruits per tree per year…
The poor management might cause premature shedding of buttons ( young fertilized coconut ) to the level of 60 to 70 % which might bring down the yield and income of hybrid coconut plantation……
But well managed Hybrid coconut plantation would give 20 000to 25000 coconuts per acres per year …This gives annual farm income of Rs. 1,00,000 to Rs.1,25,000 per acre per year @ Rs.5 per coconut …When market price is more than Rs.5 the farm income will also improve …
In the early years of plantation , you can also go for intercropping like Hybrid papya which will bring additional income of Rs.50,000 to 75,000 .From third year onwards , after removing papaya , you can plant Cocoa plant which may be sold to cadbury company …So Dwarf Vs Tall hybrid coconut plant will become a boon to the coconut farmers