Introduction

1. Introduction • Plantation crops are mainly perennial crops grown in coastal areas and includes Coconut, Areca nut, Cocoa, Oil palm, Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Cashew nut, Tapioca etc. • Areca nut palm is popularly known as betel nut or supari. It is consumed through pan-supari, pan-parag and other mouth fresheners or used in tanning industry. • Cocoa is mainly used in making chocolates, cakes, beverages and other confectionaries. It is very nutritious milk additive.

2. Coconut Coconut is important as a source of food, oil, beverage, natural fiber and timber. Mass Production of Coconut Seedling: Seed nut s should be selected from mother palms which are: • Vigorous, having 30-40 fully opened leaves with short and strong petiole and wide leaf base firmly attached to the trunk. • Regular fruit bearer, high yielding ( more than 100 nuts/year) in 12 bunches of medium sized, oblong nuts with short and stout stalks. Each nuts should contain at least 200 gm copra.

3. Mass Production of Coconut Seedling: Collection and storage of Seed nuts: • Matured nuts of 11-12 months are harvested manually between December and May using ropes for fetching and lowering. • Nuts should stored in shade till husk dries up. Then they should be arranged in five layers in such a way that stalk end pointing up and covered with 8 cm layer of river sand on each layer of nuts. • Small quantity of water should be sprinkled occasionally to prevent nut water from drying in summer. This storage method keep nuts viable for over 8 months.

4. Preparation of Nursery Site • Site: Well drained, light textured soil and adequate shade. • Nursery Beds: 1.5 m width and convenient length. Distance between two beds: 75 cm. 0.5% Chlorpyriphos is added to soil infested with termites. • Seed nuts are planted in June-July in beginning of monsoon. • Spacing: 30X30 cm and 4-5 rows of nuts are sown per bed. Coconut Nursery

5. Nursery Management: • Nursery is irrigated at 1-3 days interval in summers. Periodic spray of 1% Bordeaux mixture or other copper fungicide prevents fungal infections. • Periodic weeding is necessary. Providing organic mulches on beds would control weeds and also provide shade in summers. • Seedling Selection: Early germinating, vigorous seedlings with 10 cm collar girth and 4 early splitting leaves at 9 months age or 6-8 leaves at 10-12 month age are selected. • Uprooting: 10-12 month seedling are gently lifted after loosening surrounding soil. Uprooted seedlings are kept in shade and planted within 10 days. Roots are pruned if necessary.

6. Poly Bag Nursery • Transplanting sprouted nuts to 40x40 cm size and 500 gauge polybags helps to obtain a uniform seedling stand in the nursery. • Poly bags should have sufficient number of drainage holes pierced in the lower half as outlets to drain off excess water. • Poly bags are filled two-thirds with soil mixed with sand and well decomposed compost as medium for planting. • Seedlings from such a nursery show faster growth and come to flowering much earlier.

7. Areca nut Mass Production of Areca nut Seedlings: Areca nut is seed propagated perennial crop. Quality seed material is necessary for production of quality planting material. • Seed Nut Selection: Nuts should be selected from early bearing, regular and high fruit setting mother palms. Well matured and heavy nuts floating vertically in water with their calyx end pointing upwards are selected from a lot of tree ripe nuts. 2. Seed Sowing: Nuts are placed 5 cm apart on sand beds with stalk ends facing upwards and are covered with river sand and watered daily. Sprouting takes place in 50 to 90 days. The young seedling with 2-3 leaves are transplanted into secondary nursery.

8. Production of Areca nut Seedlings: 3. Secondary Nursery: Beds are prepared by mixing 25 kg FYM for one guntha area. Seedlings are planted at 30X30 cm on raised beds of 5 feet wide,15 cm high and of convenient length. 4. Nursery Management: Irrigation and drainage must be provided as required. Mulching and weeding enhance seedling growth and quality. 5. Selection of Seedlings for Planting: Seedlings of 12 to 18 months age are transplanted into main field. Seedling with maximum number of leaves and minimum height should be selected.

9. Cocoa Cocoa is propagated by seeds, cuttings and grafting. Propagation by Seed: Cocoa is commercially grown from seeds. • Mature ripe pods are harvested from selected mother plants and seed are extracted. The seeds are rubbed with dry sand or wood ash to remove mucilage substance. • Seeds are sown with pointed end upwards in bamboo baskets, polythene bags or on raised beds. If sown on beds, young seedlings are transplanted into baskets, pots or poly bags after two weeks after germination. • Seedlings are ready for transplanting after 3-4 months.

10. Cocoa Propagation by Grafting: • Soft wood grafting using wedge or cleft method is adopted on 40-45 days old seedling raised in poly bags. • The scion materials of similar thickness is pre-cured by defoliation before removal from mother plant. • The scion sprouts in about a month and all shoots emerging from the root stock are to be removed periodically.