Coconut experiments in S. Florida indoor & outdoor

[GottmitAlex]

8 hours ago, NOT A TA said:

Did you buy that? I only find it available as an ebook for $219.00.

I also receive, almost on a weekly basis papers on coconuts through email via academia.edu

Here's a screenshot of the one from Friday:

 

Here's a link to one of the documents:

https://www.academia.edu/6359058/Meerow_et_al._-_Cocos_SSR

Once you subscribe to academia.edu, you'll receive a ton of information regarding Cocos nucifera.  And yes, they love salt.

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by GottmitAlex

[NOT A TA]

19 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

Here's a link to one of the documents:

Not willing to agree to their terms of service so I'll have to pass on academia membership but can read the entire  Meerow et al. article as a preview.

[NOT A TA]

Fertilizer time again and we had the threat of a couple cool nights under 50 F so I put our test subjects in the garage for those nights and gave them a photo op when I took them out 3/1

Priscilla (on left) getting the Palmgain now has a darker green complexion and one more frond than Penelope. Priscilla was smaller from the start and had been behind on number of fronds till this post.  So, perhaps now the fertilizer is starting to cause a noticeable difference since the twins would have (theoretically) used up the nutrients in the nuts. Prescott (on right) with the notched and slotted husk continues to lag behind the twins.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

I find it interesting that the notched nut has fallen so far behind. 

[Rickybobby]

I see salt!

[NOT A TA]

11 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I find it interesting that the notched nut has fallen so far behind. 

Sometimes I get a coco that's just really slow and stays small a long time, this may be one of those. Some of the old publications written to provide information for farmers that grew coconuts commercially in S FL long ago mentioned weeding out the small, slow growing seedlings. The one in pic below is 5-6 years old and been in the ground 2-3 years. Pic (taken today) shows a bit of tip burn typical at the end of our brief winter and a papaya worm decided to make dinner out of the newer tender leaf tips skeletonizing them. It's a price they pay for living in a subtropical rainforest environment. It's just slightly bigger than the notched one in the growers pot that isn't even a year old yet.

2 hours ago, Rickybobby said:

I see salt!

After my first heart attack the Dr. said "NO SALT!" so there's none here. hahaha  I am however considering a small scale salt and controlled release fertilizer combination test (rather than an experiment) on a couple cocos to see if there appears to be a noticeable effect.

[NOT A TA]

On 12/15/2019 at 12:09 AM, NOT A TA said:

Just a quick post to document that I fertilized Priscilla today and began another test of notching coconut husks and slotting coconut husks for root growth. I notched two nuts and cut a root slot in two husks. Each modified nut has an unmodified one planted next to it so 4 unmodified total. Experiment is to see if sprouting or root growth is enhanced by modifying and if there's a reduced time period to juvenile size due to modifications. All nuts were from the same bunch and dropped within a couple days of each other.

My notched Coconuts mentioned in the quoted post ^^^ started sprouting yesterday. So about 3 months + a week to the first one. I believe the other one will sprout tonight and show itself by morning. They always seem to sprout at night. I saw in another thread recently where @mnorell mentioned documenting that he'd marked spears of palms and noted that almost all of their growth was at night. I've been watching Coconuts sprout for years and look at the ones I'm germinating first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. I haven't seen a single one pop during daylight hours in any season. In a previous test of notched Coconut germination the notched one sprouted about a month sooner than ones that weren't notched which is what prompted the current side by side test. My germination rates are normally almost 100% so now we wait. I'll make a note here when the other notched one sprouts.

 

[NOT A TA]

So as somewhat expected the "control" unmodified seed sprouted exactly one month later than the notched one in the previous post. I do have one more side by side notched experiment I'm waiting on. I will keep these together as they develop and see if the notched one is stunted compared to the unmodified one as was the case with the twins and (notched) Prescott.

[NOT A TA]

I decided to try germinating a coconut in my attic during winter months since I had a bunch of other experiments going on up there I'd need to check on regularly anyway. Took a little less than 4 months to sprout which seems faster than outdoors during the winter months here. Kept soil damp but not the exposed husk.

[GottmitAlex]

On 3/4/2020 at 7:43 AM, NOT A TA said:

Sometimes I get a coco that's just really slow and stays small a long time, this may be one of those. Some of the old publications written to provide information for farmers that grew coconuts commercially in S FL long ago mentioned weeding out the small, slow growing seedlings. The one in pic below is 5-6 years old and been in the ground 2-3 years. Pic (taken today) shows a bit of tip burn typical at the end of our brief winter and a papaya worm decided to make dinner out of the newer tender leaf tips skeletonizing them. It's a price they pay for living in a subtropical rainforest environment. It's just slightly bigger than the notched one in the growers pot that isn't even a year old yet.

After my first heart attack the Dr. said "NO SALT!" so there's none here. hahaha  I am however considering a small scale salt and controlled release fertilizer combination test (rather than an experiment) on a couple cocos to see if there appears to be a noticeable effect.

Looking forward to your salt/no salt test results.

Its has worked for me. First pic is the red Tahiti dwarf coco (1 year in the ground) with salt.  The other pic, well, the others.

 

[NOT A TA]

OK @GottmitAlex, I'll do a limited salt test with a set of twins and let you set the parameters. Send me a PM covering all the variables you can think of and we'll go back & forth a bit and come up with a plan.

[GottmitAlex]

auf der Hut.  Err, "on guard!"

I'll PM you tomorrow. 

Btw, you can't mess up with coconuts regarding salt.  

 

ETA: in other words,when it comes to salt with cocos, you cannot overdo it.

Just bear in mind the plots cannot sustain anything other than coconuts after you added the required salt. Muhahahaha....(true story)

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by GottmitAlex

[NOT A TA]

On 12/15/2019 at 12:09 AM, NOT A TA said:

Just a quick post to document that I fertilized Priscilla today and began another test of notching coconut husks and slotting coconut husks for root growth. I notched two nuts and cut a root slot in two husks. Each modified nut has an unmodified one planted next to it so 4 unmodified total. Experiment is to see if sprouting or root growth is enhanced by modifying and if there's a reduced time period to juvenile size due to modifications. All nuts were from the same bunch and dropped within a couple days of each other.

^^^ quoted from previous page.

They've started sprouting and one of the ones with the slot for the roots sprouted (lower right).  So now I wait to see how much longer the ones without the slot take.

[NOT A TA]

Alex's dream comes true! I'm setting up a little salt test.

I picked two nuts that fell the same day, from the same bunch,  planted the same day, and they sprouted the same day. So they're like Mini-me twins of Priscilla and Penelope.  They're next to each other on the lower left in first pic. Dug them up and potted in growers pots using sandy regular soil with some organic matter mixed in (old decorative wood chip mulch, the cheap stuff). I'll let them get settled in to their new homes flanked by the twins for about a month and then begin a salt and fertilizer routine.

[GottmitAlex]

danke John

[JLM]

How have i never seen this thread before lol

Have the cocos in your original experiment gone pinnate with the new leaves? They look like they are getting pretty close to it!

[NOT A TA]

1 hour ago, JLM said:

Have the cocos in your original experiment gone pinnate with the new leaves?

The last two fronds of the one being fertilized have been partly pinnate. I expect the next frond to be fully pinnate. The fronds on the one without fertilizer are still bifold.

And a note for myself that it was fertilized a week ago.

[NOT A TA]

On 4/29/2020 at 11:50 PM, NOT A TA said:

^^^ quoted from previous page.

They've started sprouting and one of the ones with the slot for the roots sprouted (lower right).  So now I wait to see how much longer the ones without the slot take.

The one without the slot sprouted today so 4/29 -5/23 is how much longer the one without the slot took to sprout in this particular pair.