Plantation Crops

Selection and Raising of arecanut Planting material

In arecanut we have to have selection at different levels to get better result i.e.,
Selection of seed plantation :
The plantation should be from disease free and having higher proportion of regularly high yielding palms.
Selection of mother palms :
One of the established method of selection is to select palm possessing characters of high heritability.
1. Earlyness in bearing and percentage of fruit set : Of the several characters of mother palm studied age at first bearing and percentage of fruit set were found to be correlated with yield and are having high heritability. Age at first bearing has heritability of 72 per cent and genotypic correlation of – 0.55 with yield (Number of nuts). Similarly percentage of nut set has 0.88 genotypic correlation with yield and 33 per cent heritability. Hence, it is suggested to select palms which are early bearing and have high percentage of fruit set .
2. Age of palms: Middle aged palms : Collection of nuts from the selected palm can be commenced after the stabilization of yield which normally takes 4 – 5 years after commencement of bearing. Hence, select middle age palms ( 15 – 35 years) with robust crown
3. It must be regular bearing
4. Select palms having large number of leaves on the crown
5. Palms with shorter internodes are preferred
Selection of seed nuts :
Heavier nut ( > 35 g fresh nut weight) which are fully ripe are selected. Undersized and malformed nuts should be rejected. Heavier nuts with in a bunch not only give higher per cent of germination but also produce vigorous seedlings of better quality. Above 25 per cent of nuts with in a bunch are light in weight.
Selection of seedlings :
Twelve to eighteen months old seedlings are transplanted in the main field. Nuts germinate in 53 to 94 days ( 2-3 months) after sowing.

Seedling Index in arecanut

• It is observed in arecanut that,There is significant positive genotypic correlation of number of leaves and negative correlation of height at the time of transplanting with subsequent yield it is suggested to select seedlings having maximum number of leaves and minimum height (Bavappa., 1970).
• Seedling Index = (Number of leaves X 40) – Plant height (cm)
• Seedlings having higher value of seedling index should be select to the extent practically feasible.