Greetings!
Since I can't still do anything in my garden that is still wet and muddy I deiced to plant two coconut seedlings on my vegetable garden extension outside our house. This garden extension is still untouched but there are some trees planted in it. It is located right in front of our house. My two coconut seedlings are ready for transplanting so I took them and transplanted them. I actually cannot plant any tall growing trees inside my vegetable garden because they will cover the sunlight that is crucial for the vegetables that I am going to plant. Below are two coconut seedlings that I am going to plant.
The coconut seedlings that I am going to plant
Also, I am going to be needing a fence that will protect them from animals such as goats. Here in our town, there are lots of goats roaming around when the rice farming season has ended. The fence doesn't need to be very huge and very tall, it just has to be able to protect the leaves of the coconut seedlings because goats are huge eaters of any leaves that they wanted. Below is one of the fences that I am going to use. It is actually a used fence that I refurbished to be used on my coconut seedlings. This fence was formerly used on my magic fruit inside my vegetable garden. I made it using bamboo last year.
One of the used fence that I am going to use to secure the coconut seedlings
Digging the hole
This is actually my first time planting a coconut seedling. Some of my relatives told me that planting a coconut seedling doesn't need a deep hole or the coconut shell does not need to be buried completely under the soil. Also, they told me that I should plant the coconut seedling a little bit slanted. As can be seen in the given images below I dug a shallow hole with my shovel. It is deep enough that some part of the coconut shell is above the ground.
Planting the coconut seedlings
Planting the coconut seedling is actually very very easy, I just dug a shallow hole the size of the shell of the coconut seedling itself and put it in the hole, and voila I just need to cover it with some soil and it is done. These seedlings are actually offsprings of my coconut trees just beside ours. Later on in this blog, you will see the trees where I harvested them last year. I actually harvested these coconut fruits very late. And with that being said, instead of getting young coconut fruit, I got a coconut that is perfect for making coconut milk. I actually used some of them on some of the dishes that I cooked and then let these two seedlings germinate.
below is a short video of me planting the coconut seedlings on my vegetables garden's extension
Done planting coconut seedlings
After I dug two shallow holes I immediately punt the seedlings into the (as can be seen in the two photos below). In the first photo, the upper part of the selling is exposed as advised by one of my relatives. This is not how I planted our coconut trees inside beside our house because the solid is always dry all year long. But this location where I planted the seedlings are mostly wet especially during the rainy season so I think it is really beneficial for the seedlings to be planted in this way (the upper is exposed).
Harvesting of Young Coconut (Epic Fail)
A few days ago, I and my wife noticed that the fruits of our coconut trees are already big enough for harvest (as we thought). So, I took a hook and harvested the two coconut fruits that we saw. As can be seen in the gif image below I am harvesting one of the coconut fruits using the metal hook.
And below is the gif image of me while I am harvesting the second coconut fruit from the adjacent coconut tree. This one is smaller than the second one. After I saw this second coconut fruit I immediately knew that this fruit is still very young for harvest (which proves correct).
Below is a gif image of me while I am showing my wife the first coconut fruit that I harvested. While I am playing it in my hand I am pretty sure that the first fruit that I harvested contains some young coconut meat and I am pretty sure that the second one doesn't because it is still very young.
And here they are side-by-side, on top is the first that I harvested and the bottom is the second one which is still very young.
I am a Computer Engineer, blogger, farmer, gardener, father, and husband. I love countryside living, nature, farming (rice/vegetables), and has two decades of experience as an I.T. professional
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The moment of truth
And now time to peel open the coconut. I was so excited to open the first coconut fruit because this will be the first time that I am going to eat coconut meat from my coconut tree. Using a bolo I carefully cut open the top of the fruit so that we can get the coconut juice first before cutting it open.
After cutting open the top of the fruit I took a pitcher and then put the coconut juice in it, oh boy, the juice is sweet and delicious and is very very very fresh right from the three.
Then I cut it open...
And to my dismay it does have any coconut meat, I am so disappointed, haha, my harvest is an epic fail but there are still more fruits left so I took this as a learning process in harvesting a coconut fruit.
In the image below, look at the spoon, that's the only coconut meat that I got from the first coconut fruit. The second one is much younger so it also doesn't have any meat, but I still cut it open to get the juice.
Below are the two short videos of me while I am harvesting the coconut fruits and cutting them open
That is all for now guys, catch you up with the next one. Wishing you all safety, good health, and abundance.