Question: asking about characteristics of mother palms
Answer: the important features of superior mother palms are:
•regular bearer : a good regular bearing mother palm produces on an average one leaf and an inflorescence in its axil every month. so, there will be twelve bunches of varying stages of maturity at any one time with strong bunch stalks. avoid trees producing habitually barren nuts.
•straight stout trunk with even growth and closely spaced leaf scars.
•spherical or semi spherical crown,
•high rate of leaf (more than 30 fully opened leaves) and spathe production (12 inflorescences)
•short and stout petiole and wide leaf base firmly attached to the stem,
•short and stout inflorescence stalk with bunches, preferably resting on the leaf petioles of the lower whorl and more number of female flowers (25 or more)
•the age of the palm chosen be middle age i.e., from 25 to 40 years. even trees with 15 years age can be selected, if it is high yielding and has stabilized yield.(e.g., chowghat dwarf). avoid palms that are above 60 years.
•high yielding mother palms giving not less than 100 nuts/palm/annum under irrigated condition (70-80 nuts/annum under rain fed conditions) should be chosen for collecting seednuts
•husked nuts should weigh not less than 600 g.
•mean copra content of 150 g per nut or more
•free from pest and diseases.