Coconut

Coconut is being considered as long term Crop in the survey number 15/1 in Thenkodipakkam as on 2024-02-06. This idea has been occuring on and off for past one year, but kept hesitating to flooding of the field in monsoon. Dropped the idea totally around 8feb24. Again revived on 2024-02-29 as Mohan could not cultivate casuarina due to illnes of his son.

The main trigger to proceed was a call from Omandur Balaraman on 2024-02-27 suggesting to plant Casuarina by ploughing the field. Earlier i had given up on 15/1 field for the year as Subarayalu kept delaying to inspect the field in early Feb due to late flooding on 2024-01-07. This flooding destroyed the northern bund of Farm Pond .

Coconut sapling sources

Veppankulam

On 2022-09-30, spoke to Veppankulam station of tnau. One needs to register for saplings. Saplings will be issued based on seniority. No charges for reservation, but on pickup need to pay for the same. 9 month old saplings will be given. ₹75 for tall variety and ₹250 for Hybrid (Tall x Short)

Coconut Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Veppankulam – 614 906, Thanjavur District. Phone No:04373-260205,  Fax No: 04373 – 52700 arsvpm@tnau.ac.in

Tindivanam KVK

In Tinvidanam KVK, around 5000 coconut saplings of WTC has been planted on 2023-05-17 and available for sale at ₹75. Spoke to Dr Neelavathy in charge of horticulture. She confirmed that traditional varieties are better than hybrids as they are more post tolerant. She confirmed that this WTC is different from Arasampatti variety. called and confirmed the availability of saplings on 2024-02-29.

Puthupattu Ramachandran

Visited Puthupattu Ramachandran and saw his saplings in end december. They are mostly more than one year old and ready for planting. He’s willing to arrange workers for planting. One worker can plant around 80 saplings per day. He offered to sell his saplings at ₹50. This is the lowest rate among all such local nurseries in our area.

Arasampatti Venkatesan

Listed under google as Sri Venkateswara Coconut Nursery Farm. Spoke to Venkatesan (9965466954) and also listed as Sri Lakshmi Narayana Fibre Industries. Price as on 2024-03-01 is ₹30 per sapling. Other charges as follows: 30 saplings per bag bag cost ₹20 Transport to MSS ₹300(for all 500) MSS charges ₹170~₹200 (per bag)

Venkatesan can provide saplings of whatever height/month we prefer. 8 months saplings are 2.5-3.5 ft height. One year saplings are usually above 4ft and some may be 6 ft height.

Arasampatti senthilGuru

Based on old visiting card collected in Puducherry. senthilGuru(9698107611/6382577467) offered saplings at ₹40. He claimed that those being sold at ₹30 are unfit or may be too old. He claimed that he sells such saplings at ₹20 for functions(1000 and above). He also offered Transport at ₹12 per km for sending coconuts, but they are economical only if above 1000 saplings.

As per him, per bag can take upto 35 saplings, and his transport cost to MSS is 800 and will cost him upto ₹2500 for 500 saplings. He generally gives free if cost, replacement saplings i.e upto 30~40. On my request, the best he can offer is ₹35 per saplings.

He strongly suggested saplings of upto 3 ft height and never above 4 ft. Anything above 4ft may have failure rate upto 20%. He sent photos of both varieties with his recommendation.

Irrigation

Drip Irrigation details as found in TNAU. Root zone of coconut for moisture absorption is concentrated in a circular area of 200 cm radius around the base of coconut tree up to a depth of 100 cm. Irrigating coconut trees by a set of four drippers set equidistant in a circle 100 cm away from the base of the tree and discharging water at the rate of 30 l/h for 2.5 h with a irrigation frequency of 8 days can maximize the wetting area of soils in the effective root zone of coconut.

With just 400~500 saplings in Survey No 15/1, water can be easily provided using drip irrigation.

Source: https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/horticulture/horti_pcrops_coconut_drip.html ↗

Consulted Ezhumalai, the dealer from Netafim on availaing subsidy under horticulture. He suggested 2x2 spacing but the land must be given on lease to someone else as i’ve already availed subsidy from Agri department in 2022-23.

Estimate

saplings cost 500 * ₹40 - ₹20000 Transport cost - ₹5000(200*18bags) Tractor(5 pt + Rotavator) - ₹15000 JCB for digging pits - ₹10000 Red sand(per load 3.5units) -₹10000 Manure(₹1000+₹300JCB+₹400transport) - ₹10000 Labour (Filling pits and Planting ) - ₹3000 Total = ₹73000

Irrigation Pipeline digging - ₹10000 Siva - ₹5000(?) Drip extra - ₹10000 Total - ₹25000

Land Preparation

Paid ₹5000 for hiring tractor from AED at ₹500 per hour(driver extra 100 per hour), 5 pt hiring charge 500.

Spoke to Driver Santosh(9786473217) and he’ll start at 6am sharp tomorrow.

Package of Practices

Selection of good quality seedling

9-12 month old seedling At least four leaves for 9 month old seedling Six to eight leaves for 10-12 month old seedling Early germination, rapid growth & seedling vigour Collar girth : 10-12 cm Early splitting of leaves

For sapling nursery management Remove seednuts do not germinate within 6 months after sowing Percentage of recovery : 60-65 per cent

Pit Size

1m*1m*1m - pit size Fill with top-soil, manure, red soil

In low level areas seedlings are planted in shallow pits and as the trees grow up ground level will be raised so as to cover the bole portion of the plants.

Spacing

Planting system Spacing plants/ ha Triangular 7.6m 198 Square 7.6m to 9m 170-120 Single hedge 6.5m in the rows 9m btw rows 220 Double hedge 6.5m in rows 9m btw pairs of rows 280

Red soil Source

kondalankuppam village near Thollamur, Mailam or vanur taluk has a lot of quarries

Reality

Ploughing the field

The entire field was not ploughed in time due to monetary reasons for nearly an year. Last Ploughing was done using duck foot Plough by Omandur Balaraman in mid'23.

Tractors from Agricultural Engineering department ( AED ) was utilized for Ploughing the field. Basic cost structure is as follows: Tractor hire charges ₹500 per hour Driver charges ₹100 per hour Food charges 2 or 3 times per day Rental for duck foot Plough ₹600 per day.

2 turns of Duck foot plough took more than 18 hrs over 3 days. One turn of Rotavator took another 12 hours. Officially paid 10+10+2+5 hours and unofficial payment of over 3 hours.

The duck foot ploughing work was carried out from 2024-03-02 and finished on 2024-03-04 evening. The Rotavator work commenced on 2024-03-06 and finished on 2024-03-07.

While working on the field, the AED driver Annadurai recommonded levelling some areas in east, southwest using JCB. This were completed by Jayaraman using JCB on 2024-03-05.

Final amount paid exclusively for Ploughing activity was ₹21630.

Pit Preparation

Marking the pits in the field

Along with Mohan and three other lady workers, marking off the entire field with kolamavu was completed. Total manpower charges 6 womenday + 2 mandays excluding time spent by me. The work commenced on 7AM on 2024-03-08 and ended around 5pm and recommenced at 7:00AM on 2024-03-09 and ended around 11:00AM.

Spacing was 8m*8m between rows and columns, except in the border where the distance might be much lesser.

Due to the existing electrical line along the 2/3 of the field, the alignment of cocnut pits was designed along the electrical line with spacing of 4m on each sides of the same.

Digging the pits

Pits were dug by Jayaraman using JCB. Most pits were atleast 2.5*2.5*2.5, but some where deeper upto 3.5ft and some where 2 ft depth. Total time taken 7.8+8.8 hrs i.e in total 16.6 hrs.

Total cost around ₹19220 including marking the field. The work took entire two days on 2024-03-08 and 2024-03-09.

nutrients Management or Filling of pits with Manure and sand

Due to the clayey soil in the area, alternate red sand was planned initially. However the sand deposited by the recent floods and dug out soil(sandy in nature) from the farm pond were found to be off decent quality and in adequate quantity. So instead of filling the pits with manure and sand seperately, decided upon using JCB to mix the sand and manure. The manure rich sand was instead filled in the pits.

On 2024-03-13, 10 tipper loads of manure was procured from nearby Aruvapakkam village at a cost of ₹1000 per load with transportation charges of ₹600 and loading charges of ₹300 each. So 10 loads cost ₹19000 and Mohan supervised the entire activity.

On 2024-03-14, with 4 men(sekar, Murugan, Sathyamurthy,Set), two Tractors(Murugan and Ettiyappan), 4 ladies(wife of set,Murugan,sister of set, mother of Sathyamurthy),mohan, Jayaraman the work commenced at 7:30 AM.

Tractors were orginially contracted for daily hire at ₹4000, while i have used their services at ₹300 to ₹400 per trips earlier. At the end of day each tractor could only run for 4 trips each and i ended up paying ₹2500 each.

Sekar and Set ended up filling the pits with clay top soil first. The manure rich sand was filled in the pits by the ladies, while loading of baskets were done by Murugan and Sathyamurthy from each tractor.

Looking at the speed at which the filling up of pits going on, Jayaraman decided to fill the nearby pits using front bucket(2 pits per bucket). Later Sekar joined him so that dozer was used to fill pits with sekar filled the pits(6+ per trip). Due to this intervention, the work finally eneded at 4:00 PM and ladies were paid ₹400 each, men ₹800 each, sekar extra ₹100 and mohan was paid ₹1000 for two days. JCB charges came at ₹6650.

Total cost ₹20230 including food etc for this one day.

Drip Irrigation

A single submain based Drip Irrigation was planned for the entire field. 7 valves were planned. All items were procured from Netafim dealer Ezhumalai and plain lateral along with drippers were ordered from Shah Agro agency.

Trench for the pipeline was dug using JCB by Jayaraman on 2024-03-05, when he came for levelling the field. It took around ₹4755 for the JCB for the trenching work.

Submain and valve setup with take off

Pavunjur Siva or sivakumar installed the drip irrigation system. He prepaered the takeoff laterals of 1m each with short nipple on one side and joiner on another side. He joined the drip submain line pipes first. He finished the valve works next. Then he punched holes in the submain, inserted the rubber gromet in the holes. Then inserted the takeoff laterals using the short nipple side in the submain.

Molasur Sekar and Murugan came on 2024-03-11 to clean up the trench and remove the clay around the pipes.

On 2024-03-12, the trench was closed after testing the submain using JCB with help from Siva, his father and Mohan. JCB cost ₹2665 for less than 3 hrs.

The materials from Shah Agro took extra long time to come.

Lateral laying - stage 1

The shipment ordered from Shah Agro through VRL came first and reached Tindivanam on 2024-03-21. Collected from VRL₹2100 and brought to Farm with help from Molasur Prabu Auto ₹400.

Today 2024-03-23, Mohan, with molasur sumathi w/o settu, kovadi maala kumaran laid out all the six rolls from South. In fact Mohan tested it at NE corner yesterday itself with his wife doing the beginning work. They also fixed the drippers at every pit. Tested out by running the motor for close to 90 minutes. Paid ₹400+₹400+₹600 in total.

Alternate source of water from Openwell at 17-2

Molasur Murugan and his wife started digging the trench from Openwell at 17-2 to the nearest valve where existing mainline is located. Need to connect the line tomorrow using Mohan’s motor.

Need to connect NRV and Air valve to prevent distruption to pipeline. Sought help and advice from Molasur Raja.

Sekar and Murugan completed the digging of the trench. Paid ₹1600 for the day and ₹1200 for the earlier day for Murugan and his wife. Also paid ₹500 to Mohan for second day. He fixed the wrong drippers from the previous day’s work, bought and connected the pipes. Joining at the valve is still pending.

The pipeline trench was finally closed after fixing the valve on 2024-03-29 and tested the line for leaks by Mohan and Murugan.

Lateral laying - stage 2

The first shipment through Vtrans finally reached Pondicherry today 2024-03-25. Took the car and found that there is no way to stuff 12 rolls. Called Molasur Thanusu to take that to the farm at ₹1500. Paid ₹2100+₹50 to vtrans.

Laying of the laterals will be done by Mohan tomorrow.

Saplings

Paid the advance for 220 saplings on Saturday and paid the remaining balance today 2024-03-25. The saplings are coming in 7 bags and expected height is not less than 3ft. MSS charges are ₹1400. Total payment to Arasampatti Lakshminarayana fibres or Venkatesan is ₹7600. Saplings came around 7pm on 2024-03-26. Paid ₹1480 to MSS and ₹400 for auto to bring the saplings to farm. Auto Driver Prabu informed that 7 bags already was difficult to bring in Auto. If need to transport more, need to arrange Tata Ace. Saplings came to farm around 8 pm and unloaded by Mohan and Madurai.

On 2024-03-27 ordered 2nd round of saplings based on the planting speed until Noon. Ordered 320 saplings at a total cost of ₹10770. MSS charged ₹2360 and tata ace ₹800, ₹200 more than agreed to an unfruitful trip to MSS on 2024-03-28 evening. Unfortunately could not collect on 2024-03-28, as MSS transport vehicle broken down. The unfriendly guy at MSS never picked up the phone and Tata ace went and found this delay at 7pm on 2024-03-28. Collected and brought saplings to the farm in Tata Ace on 2024-03-29 around 5pm and we put 11 sacks at various locations in the farm.

Planting round 1

On 2024-03-27, planting of around 180 saplings were completed. Including Mohan, 3Men and 3Women worked today. Work commenced at 8am, broke at 1pm recommenced at 3pm and ended at around 5:30pm with morning breakfast break for 30 mins. Paid ₹500 to women and ₹800 to men and ₹1000 to Mohan.

Since all 7 sacks were dropped at a single location, 3 women had to carry around the saplings to various pits for almost half of the day. This was rectified in round 2. Neem seed powder was filled in the pit by Mohan or by another women at the time of planting.

The remaining 30+ saplings were planted on 2024-03-29 by 1M+1W in half a day with Mohan extra.

Planting round 2

On 2024-03-30, planting of around 285 saplings were completed. 2 were found faulty in round 1 and nearly 1 bag remains in round 2. Including Mohan, 4Men and 4Women worked today. Work commenced at 8am, broke at 1pm recommenced at 3pm and ended at around 6pm with morning breakfast break for 30 mins. Paid ₹500 to women and ₹800 to men and ₹1000 to Mohan.

Neem seed powder was filled in the pits by a woman in the morning itself and she completed the job in an hour and she joined the work of filling the pits after planting the coconuts.

The work took longer time mainly due to filling up of the pits, some were too deep and wide.

Post Planting

I have been going to the farm almost daily. On sunday 2024-03-31, the remaining saplings(around 27) were neatly planted in shade under pongaima tree.

Watered the saplings on sunday for 2 hours and again watered today 2024-04-02 for 2 hours. Found most (more than 70%) drippers quite far from the saplings. So Mohan and myself have been shifting the drippers today evening. Yesterday spent the day fixing the motor room gaps. Finished around 150 to 200. Mohan will continue the work tomorrow morning.