Intercropping may be done the first few years, with cotton, peanut, or yams. Fruits are produced after three years, during which lower branches and suckers are removed. Full production is attained by 10th year and continues to bear until about 30 years old. Flowers and fruits in various degrees of development are often present in same panicle. Harvesting From flowering stage to ripe fruit requires about 3 months.
Mature fruit falls to the ground where the 'apple' dries away.
Mechanical means for shelling have been unsuccessful, so hand labor is required. In India part of nuts are harvested from wild trees by people who augment their meager income from other crops grown on poor land. Kernels extracted by people skilled in breaking open the shells with wooden hammers without breaking the kernels. Nuts are separated from the fleshy pedicel and receptacle, seed coat removed by hand, and nuts dried. Fresh green nuts from Africa and the islands off southern India are shipped to precessing plants in Western India.