Coconut

Coconut palms need full sun and a frost-free climate, thriving only where mean annual temperatures stay between about 15 and 21°C with 500mm or more of rainfall; they tolerate flooding and wind and are best planted during warm, rainy summer months. Transplants are set about one inch below the soil surface, watered in immediately, mulched to conserve moisture, and given roughly an inch of water weekly through their first year.

Seed nuts are ready for propagation when they make a sloshing sound when shaken; they germinate best in high temperatures when laid on their side and buried in mulch or sand with about a third of the nut left exposed, either in closely spaced rows or large pots, before six-month-old palms are moved into the ground. Because coconut is prone to nutrient deficiencies, a palm-specific fertiliser is applied three to four times a year.

Lethal yellowing is the most serious disease, first showing as premature fruit drop and blackening flower stalks before the leaves yellow and the palm dies within about six months; lethal bronzing follows a similar pattern, discolouring the oldest leaves first until the spear leaf collapses. Bud rot causes new fronds to darken and drop and calls for removal of badly affected palms, though it can be limited by spraying a phosphorous-acid product such as fosetyl-Al; siting palms in well-draining ground is the main way to avoid these diseases generally.

Palm aphids, spider mites and various scale insects are common but rarely fatal pests, while larger-scale production is additionally threatened by the coconut rhinoceros beetle and the cadang-cadang viroid.

A coconut is mature once its internal meat, the copra layer, has become firm, and fruit is picked using an extended saw pole. A palm needs about 20 years to reach full production, after which it can bear fruit year-round, with each individual fruit taking about a year to develop and typical annual yields ranging from roughly 30 to 80 fruits, up to a reported 50–200 on well-managed trees.

Culinary: The white meat is eaten fresh, dried, or spooned out in its immature jelly-like stage, and dried meat known as copra is pressed for coconut oil used in cooking; the endosperm liquid, coconut water, and pressed coconut milk are also widely consumed, and sweet sap tapped from the palm is drunk fresh or fermented into palm wine or vinegar.

Industrial and household: Coir, the fibrous husk, is spun into rope and used in growing-media mixes, the hard shell can be turned into charcoal, and the oil additionally serves in cosmetics; shells, husks and the long pinnate leaves are also worked into furnishings and decorative items.

Cultural: Coconut carries cultural and religious meaning for Austronesian peoples, appearing in their mythologies, songs and oral traditions, and it is used in South Asian Hindu rituals such as weddings and worship; it has also been used in folk medicine.

Coconut's centre of origin lies in the Central Indo-Pacific, where genetic diversity is greatest, and it was domesticated by Austronesian peoples in Island Southeast Asia. It spread during the Neolithic through their seaborne migrations as far east as the Pacific Islands and as far west as Madagascar, serving as a portable source of food and water and providing materials for outrigger boats on these voyages. Coconuts were carried much later along the coasts of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans by South Asian and Arab sailors, and from the 16th century by Europeans, producing distinct Pacific and Indo-Atlantic types; the Indo-Atlantic type reached the Americas during the colonial-era Columbian exchange.