COCONUT NURSERY

Nursery

Site Selection

i) The soils in the site should well drained, preferable sandy soils, heavy clays soils should be avoided

ii) Soils should be deep enough not less than 1.5 m. Shallow soils with underlying hard rocks, low areas which are subjected to water stagnant .

iii) Should be near water source for daily watering as recommended

iv)Not have  big shades. Normally coconuts require sunshine

v)The area should be free from soil born diseases or nutrient deficiencies

Preparation of beds

-Clean the area and remove all tree stumps

-Beds of 1 m in width and about 10 m long

-Leave 60 cm between beds

-Fence the nursery use any available to keep destroying animals out

Sowing

-Before the nuts are sown the front side of the nut should be slashed to allow germination

-Nuts are planted in shallow trenches 15 cm deep.  The trench should be about 45-60 cm apart wide enough to take a coconut and almost deep enough for the nuts to be buried. 

-The nuts should be planted horizontally in the trenches about 15 cm. without removing the husk. -They should be only two thirds buried this allows easy inspection for early germination.  Nuts which germinate slowly must be discarded at early stage.

-      Shade is unnecessary but watering is essential during dry periods.

-          Trenches are normally 45 cm-60 cm apart (row spacing)

-          Seen-nuts are placed horizontal with largest eye pointing to the uppermost.

-          Seedbeds are sometimes mulched but should not be shaded

-        Sprouting may first appear after 3 months but mean of 4-4½ .Anything beyond 5 months should be rejected because it will be weak.

-Seedlings are ready for transplanting when they have three or four leaves i.e. about a year after planting. They are simply pulled upwards, no harm is done if some of the roots are broken unless bole rot is prevalent, in which case root damage should be avoided.  There should be a further selection at the three leaf stage when all weak plants are pulled out.  Selection should be so rigorous that no more than 50% of the nuts originally planted .in the nursery is used for planting in the field.

Germination

-The seed has no dormancy but germination is slow. Germination may begin while the fruits are still attached to the palm.

-In most tall palm, it takes 4 months for the shoot to emerge form planted fruits

-The embryo grows in two directions. i.e the outer end produces the shoot whilst the inner end grows into the central cavity of the nuts to form (a spherical, spongy body) the haustorium or coconut apple.  This has a function of making contact with the endosperm to the growing seedling.

-The shoot emerges through the husk, the root grow from the base of the shoot and emerge at the bottom of the nuts at about the same time.

Selection of seedling

Choose seedlings which are straight, healthy seedlings, discard all seedlings which are twins, too tall, bent, unhealthy and those seedlings which have abnormal colour.

Nursery management

-water management should be observed all the days except on the rainy days.

-Weeding should be done whenever weeds appear.  Prevent the inversion of pests and diseases, pests like termites etc.