For the majority of farmers in India, coconut cultivation is without a doubt a consistently successful and very profitable business option. Coconut plantings unquestionably seem to be highly important to our economy as well. While the majority of coconut farms are often located in tropical regions, it is also known to flourish in other climatic zones and nations.
Coconut palm plant variants
There are several hybrid commercial forms of the coconut palm plant. This comprises the tall forms of the coconut tree, which are primarily planted throughout much of India and other areas of Asia, as well as the sensitive coconut plantings that they produce. In contrast, dwarf types are often produced primarily for their unlimited parent material in hybrid seed production facilities. The following examples of coconut palm plants fall within each category:
● Benaulim, Laccadive Ordinary, Kappadam, Laccadive Micro, Tiptur Komadan, and Andaman Ordinary are tall types.
● Chowghat Dwarf Orange, Malayan Yellow Dwarf, Malayan Orange variations, Chowghat Dwarf Yellow, and Chowghat Dwarf Green are among the dwarf varieties.
● Bangalore Bondam and Ganga Bondam are two types of water.
Understanding the varieties of coconut palm plants
There are many different types of coconut palms and their fruit which can be green, orange, or even brown. The different colours of these coconuts usually depend on their ripeness. Most of the Green coconuts, which are often unripe, have much more density due to the coconut water, while it is known that the brown coconuts have much more meat. Here are different types of coconuts and their varieties with a deeper look into their characteristics, requirements, and maturity size.
Dwarf coconut palms are always typically small in stature. They can also start producing fruit at a very small age as well as size. Sometimes it can only take a few years for those dwarf varieties to produce coconuts, at which point they may only be a meter or two tall. Even though these dwarf coconuts can effectively produce good amounts of fruit when they are still small in size, some can grow to be quite tall.
Characteristics:
● The dwarf coconut is typically small in stature and can oftentimes commence with bearing its fruit as early as possible when in comparison to a much taller variety.
● The dwarf coconut palm plant can always flower as early as the third year after having it well planted and come eventually form a much more regular bearing fruit within most of its ninth year.
● The average life span for each dwarf plant is about 40-50 years.
● Dwarf coconut plantings come in a wide variety that is keen on producing green, orange as well as yellow nuts.
● The dwarf varieties are also highly susceptible to drought.
● While the nuts are in the usual small sizes they are mostly round
● The nut usually weighs almost about 3 oz with about 65 per cent oil of its entire content.
Chowghat Orange Dwarf Coconut
Mature Size: 5 meters (16 feet) The Chowghat orange dwarf is a type of coconut planting that usually has a maturity size of about 5 meters and has its origin in the state of Kerala. The coconut farms that have these types of hybrids usually have fuller sun, well-drained soil as well and ample to medium amounts of water. Some of its special features include the variety of coconut it tends to produce on average after about 3 to 4 years. They can also live up to 50 years at maximum and are widely known for being able to produce huge orange coconut palm plants that are sometimes up to 65 per year. The coconut plantings in themselves have excess amounts of meat and tender sweet water. This type of variety is also really popular due to the size of the coconuts and the overall amount of edible goodness that they can often contain.
VHC1 Coconut
The VHC1 dwarf coconut palm plants also come in a similar maturity size that has its origins in the state of Tamil Nadu. Some of its very common special features include the dwarf variety of the coconut is a hybrid between the East Coast Tall and the Green dwarf coconut plantings. It is also very famous for entirely producing such massive amounts of coconuts for an entire year, which is usually up to 100 per tree!
Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD)
The Chowghat green dwarf is a very unique type of dwarf coconut palm plant that takes about 3 to 4 years to bear its yield. Its overall annual yield capacity is generally about 66 nuts per coconut palm plant per year. These coconut plantings usually have a copra content of about 60 grams per nut. It is also noteworthy that the oil content is usually 66 per cent. Some of the special features of this coconut dwarf plant are that the leaf petioles, the overall leaves as well as the nuts are mostly dark green. The nuts tend to have the characteristic ‘beak’ when they turn fully mature. This variety is also very much tolerant to the root wilt disease.
Tall Varieties of Coconut plantings
The tall coconuts are usually the varieties that don’t always produce as early on as compared to that of the dwarf varieties. As their name rightfully suggests, they can grow to a much larger size before beginning to produce coconuts, and some can even reach incredible heights at the time of their maturity. In addition to this, the tall coconut varieties typically tend to live so much longer and are effectively hardier than when compared to the dwarf varieties.
Characteristics:
● Long-lived coconut palm plants that are living generally to an approximate age of about 80 to 90 years in total.
● Palms tend to thrive well under so many different soil conditions and can vary from the existing littoral sands to that of the red loams as well as laterites.
● Palms under this variety usually grow well up to an exceeding altitude of 3,000 ft. above sea level. It is also fairly resistant to different types of diseases and pests.
● The tree tends to attain a height of about 15m to a general 18m or more
● It begins to also bear within the first 8 to 10 years after the coconut planting
● The nut is usually medium to big and can vary in shape from its overall spheroid to the linear-oblong. They can also come in varying colours (green, yellow, or orange to wide shades of brown.)
● There can also be about 6,000 nuts as an overall yield of a large ton of copra.
West Coast Tall Coconut
The West Coast Tall Coconut palm plants usually attain a maturity size of about 33 meters (100 feet). This variety of coconut planting also requires full sun, prefers well-drained soil, and can usually be very drought tolerant. One of the most prominent special features of this variety is that the West Coast tall coconut tree is one of the tallest varieties there is of the coconut palm plant. It is also slightly taller than the East Coast tall variety and produces slightly more coconuts per year as well. In addition, the coconuts of the West Coast tall coconut have a slightly higher oil content than most other types.
East Coast Tal coconut planting:
These kinds of coconuts usually have a mature size of about 30 meters which is usually around 90 feet. Some of their special features include being typically very hardy just as long as the soil is dry enough and not too wet. These tall coconut palm plants tend to begin producing their coconut plantings right after 6 or 8 years and will most likely produce 60-70 coconuts per year on average. The soil without a doubt needs to be well-drained deep within a sandy loam, alluvial, and probably red loamy soil which is likely most ideal. The average time taken for the bearing is usually 6 to 8 years with an average yield of about 70 nuts per palm in a year. While the overall copra content can range from 125 grams per coconut tree, with the range being between 100 and 140 grams. The Oil Content is about 64 per cent on average. Some of the special features are that it is recommended for large-scale cultivation in coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Pondicherry, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andamans, and West Bengal. The nuts are smaller than West Coast Tall
Aliyar Nagar 1 or ALR (CN) 1 coconut tree:
The Aliyar coconut planting usually takes about 5 years for its entire bearing and can yield about an average of 126 coconuts per palm annually. The copra content is usually 131 grams of nut. The Oil content can range up to 66.5 per cent at most times. It is noted to be highly drought tolerant and can be suitable for Rainfed as well as irrigated conditions. Being selected from the Arasampatti Tall coconut variant from the Dharmapuri District, one year earlier flowering can be quite easily compared to the West coconut tree and more. These coconut plantings are moderately tolerant to all major coconut pests. This cultivar was released by Coconut Research Station, Aliyar Nagar, Tamil Nadu in 2002 for commercial cultivation in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Hybrid Coconut Palm plants
The hybrid coconut trees are the ones that have intervarietal crosses between two morphological forms of coconut plantings. They also tend to show signs of earliness in their flowering pattern as well as tend to give an increased amount of yield, which is usually of higher quantity, and definitely of a much better quality of copra as well as oil. This is when compared to the parents. In most cases, when a tall coconut planting is used as female it tends to be called a T*D hybrid while on the contrary, the reciprocal is known as a D*T hybrid. Hybrids usually perform well under some really good management conditions including ones that are well-maintained in terms of nutrients and irrigation.
Characteristics:
● Hybrids are in most cases intervarietal crosses that are usually between the two morphological forms of the coconut palm plants.
● They tend to exhibit earliness in flowering, increased nut yield, as well as higher copra production, and that usually gives them better quality copra and oil as compared to their parent plantings.
● Hybrids are also produced in two ways, namely the tall variety as the female parent and dwarf as the predominant male parent (Tall x Dwarf) or the dwarf coconut planting as the female parent and the tall as the male parent (Dwarf x Tall).
● Besides intervarietal hybrids like Tall x Tall and Dwarf x Dwarf are also produced.
Kerasankara (WCT x COD):
This type of hybrid variety of coconut planting is usually selected from West Coast Tall and the mix of the Chowghat Orange Dwarf. It takes an average of 4 years for the entire seed-bearing process and can yield an average amount of 108 nuts per palm annually. Usually, the copra content tends to be about 187 grams per nut, and the oil content about 67 per cent. Some of its prominent special features include this variety was released by CPCRI, Kerala for large-scale cultivation across the south. These hybrid palms are precocious and exhibit higher productivity than the parents. Recommended for general cultivation, these are generally under rainfed as well as irrigated conditions.
Chandralaksha (LCT x COD):
Right from the palm selection, this hybrid coconut planting usually comes in a blend of Lakshadweep Ordinary and the Chowghat Orange Dwarf. The average time taken for the entire bearing process will be about 4 to 5 years. It has an average yield of about 109 nuts per palm in a year and the copra content is usually 195 grams per nut. The oil content is generally about 69 per cent. One of its special features is that this hybrid was released by CPCRI, Kerala, for large-scale cultivation. It is also the kind of hybrid that usually performs better in moisture-stress situations.
Kerasoubhagya (WCT x SSAT):
The hybrid coconut palm plant is usually a selection from the West Coast Tall and the Strait Settlement Apricot Tall coconut planting. The average time taken for the bearing is about 5 years with an average yield of 116 nuts per coconut palm plant annually. Usually, the copra content is about 196 grams per nut. The oil content can vary up to 65 per cent. One special feature is that this hybrid coconut planting variety was released by Kerala Agricultural University for large-scale cultivation in Kerala, Karnataka as well as Tamil Nadu.
