How Useful Is A Coconut Tree

Why is a coconut tree called "The Tree of Life"? The Coconut Tree is known to have many uses, from its roots to tips, from culinary to non-culinary. In the Philippines, the coconut tree is considered as the "Tree of Life". You must be wondering, why is that so? Allow me to cite the different parts of the coconut tree and its corresponding benefits and/or uses.

Coconut Roots

Coconut roots are used as beverage, dye, mouthwash, and medicine for dysentery (formerly known as flux or the bloody flux). A frayed-out piece of root can also be used as a toothbrush.

Coconut Trunks

Coconut trunks, its hardy and durable wood is used for building small bridges, preferred for their straightness, strength and salt resistance. It is also used to make benches, tables, carvings, picutre frames, tables, tool boxes and construction materials, among others. Paper pulp can also be extracted from the coconut trunk and other woody parts of the tree.

Coconut Branches

Coconut branches (leaf petioles) are strong and flexible enough to make a switch (a flexible rod, typically used for corporal punishment).

Coconut Leaves

Coconut leaves can be woven to create effective roofing materials, or reed mats. It can also produce good quality paper pulp, midrib brooms, hats and mats, fruit trays, waste baskets, fans, beautiful midrib decors, lamp shades, placemats, and bags. The stiff leaflet midribs can also be used to make cooking skewers and kindling arrows. Dried coconut leaves can be burned to ash, which can be harvested for lime.

Coconut Fruit

Coconut fruit produces buko, often used for salads, halo-halo (crushed ice with sweetened fruit), sweets and pastries. The "sport fruit" of the coconut known as makapuno is primarily harvested in the Philippines. They are sold in jars as "gelatinous mutant coconut" cut into balls or strands. Considered a delightful delicacy and largely used for making preserves and ice-cream. It is possible for it not to be kept in storage and still, will not germinate.

Coconut Water

Coconut water provides an isotonic electrolyte balance, and is a highly nutritious food source. Uses of coconut water include: coconut water vinegar; coconut wine; production of the chewy, fiber-rich "nata", good as a dessert and as a laxative; as a growth factor; and as a substitute for dextrose. It is also used to cure renal disorders. "Bukolysis" is the medical process of reducing or dissolving urinary stones from the urinary tract, using buko water from 7 to 9 months old coconuts. If you heard of "water therapy", there is also such thing as "buko/coconut therapy".

Coconut Oil

Copra is the dried coconut meat and, after further processing, is a source of high coconut oil content (as much as 64%). Coconut oil is the most readily digested, of all the fats, generally used in the world. Its chief competitors are soya bean oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil. It can be rapidly processed and extracted as a fully organic product from fresh coconut flesh, and used in many ways including as a medicine and in cosmetics, or as a direct replacement for diesel fuel. Virgin coconut oil is found superior to the oil extracted from copra for cosmetic purposes.

Coconut Infloresence

Out of the bud of the coconut tree's infloresence is a fermented juice called coconut toddy or, in the Philippines, tuba. The principal uses of the toddy are: as fresh beverage; for producing alcoholic beverages; for producing vinegar; for making sugar; and as a source of yeast for making bread.

Coconut Husk

Coconut husks are made of bristle fiber (10%), mattress fiber (20%) and coir dust and shorts or wastes (70%). Coir is used in ropes, mats, brushes, caulking boats and as stuffing fibre; it is also used extensively in horticulture for making potting compost. The husk can be used for fuel and are a good source of charcoal. Dried half coconut shells with husks are used to buff wooden floors, making it clean and shiny (free from dusts). In the Philippines, it is known as "bunot" Fresh inner coconut husk can be rubbed on the lens of snorkelling goggles to prevent fogging during use.

Coconut Shell

Coconut shell produces the core of the most saleable household products and fashion accessories that can be turned into lucrative, wide-selling cottage industries. In the Philippines, dried half shells are used as musical instrument in a folk dance called "Maglalatik", a traditional dance about conflicts for coconut meat within the Spanish era. They are also used in theatres, banged together to create the sound effect of a horses' hoofbeats. Half coconut shells may be deployed as an improvised bra, especially for comedic effect or theatrical purposes. Shirt buttons can be carved out of dried coconut shell. Coconut buttons are often used for Hawaiian Aloha shirts.

You see how amazing the coconut tree is? In fact, in the Philippines, it is considered as one of the major dollar earner industry that provides livelihood to most of the country's population. Indeed, a Tree of Life!

How To Plant A Cherry Tree Well

Cherry trees are so beautiful when they are in bloom that they are an ideal choice if you want a tree that doubles as an edible ornamental. Fruit-producing types don't have double flowers or weeping habits like ornamental cherries, but they make up for this shortcoming by producing buckets of juicy fruits. Cherry trees always bloom in spring, but in some years they fail to set fruit, even when conditions seem perfect. Perhaps they're saving their energy, because when a cherry tree does have a good year, the harvest is huge.

Sweet or Tart?

Choose from the two types of cherries: sweet and tart. Sweet cherries are for plucking right off the tree and eating fresh, but the trees often don't fruit well in climates with mild winters. Tart cherries, which are fine for cooking, are more widely adapted and often easier to grow. All cherries mature in early summer.

How to use dwarf cherries

Use a pair of dwarf cherries to anchor a strawberry bed or plant the ground beneath them with little spring-flowering bulbs. Dwarf cherries have a neat, upright growth habit that makes them easy to fit into any type of landscaping plan. If you want a more sculptural tree, a standard-size cherry may be an ideal choice.

Keep birds out

Fine netting is the surest way to discourage birds from devouring your crop. Cover the whole tree with the netting and remove it as soon as your harvest is done. Alternatively, string black cotton thread among the branches just before ripening begins. Take a spool of thread, grab the free end and toss the spool back and forth over the tree to a helper; continue until the spool is empty. Birds will hit the invisible thread and find it too much trouble to return to the tree.

Plant a dwarf cherry in a tub

Select a tub or other large container at least 20 inches (50 cm) in height and width. Fill it with a mixture of equal parts garden soil, compost, and per liter, plant your cherry and grow it on your deck or patio.

How To Plant Pineapples Well

Pineapple is an exotic tropical plant and is quite delicious. Growing pineapple is very simple and it does not require much maintenance. Here is a simple step by which you can grow pineapple in your home and enjoy the fruits when its grown and ripe.

Get a plant: First thing that you need to do is to get a pineapple from the local fruit market. Make sure that the plant is not too ripe and not too tender as well. The leaves must be green in color while the skin of the fruit must be golden brown in color. You must also make sure that the plant does not have any insect. Such insects appear as gray spots over the base of the leaves.

Cut the crown: You need to cut the crown in such a way that the stem is not damaged and at the same time, no fruit flesh are attached to it. In case some fruit flesh is attached cut it carefully as it may damage your pant later. Trim some leaves so that the stem is exposed at the bottom.

Let the plant dry: You need to dry the plant, for doing this turn the plant upside down and let the eaves and the bottom of the plant harden.

Dip the plant in water: After this put the crown in water, better if you put it in a glass of water so that only the roots are wet. Do not keep it in extreme temperature; you can keep changing the water after every few days and then wait till rots start coming up.

Prepare the soil: The soil where you will plant the pineapple must be a mixture of 30%organic material and light garden soil must be used. Plant the crown properly and press the surrounding soil, make sure there are no soil over the leaves. The crown must be planted at least 6 inches deep into the soil.

Keep the plant under favorable condition: The plant must be kept in a hot and humid condition. Make sure it gets moderate sunlight and at night the temperature must not fall below 18 degree C. if the atmospheric condition is too dry then moist the plant everyday.

Take care of the plant: The plant must be watered once in a week and add fertilizer twice a month during the summer time. It can take some years for the fruit to bear but a red core will appear from the center of the pant. You will witness blue flowers and fruits coming out of it. It takes 6 months for fruits to ripe.

Indoor palm plants: Pineapple can be grown indoors, you just have to make sure that it gets moderate amount of sunlight. The best thing about pineapple is it grows best in a pot.

Pineapple plants Cost: Pineapple is not very costly and it is better to enjoy the fruit fresh rather than having a canned pineapple. Pineapple will cost you less than 5 dollars and it is cheaper in Austrilia.

Pineapple flower plant: Pineapple bears small blue flowers and once eth flower matures, the color of it can change. When a pineapple has to produce fruit, the plant bears about 200 flowers, each flower bears a fruit and all of them together collectively form the pineapple.

Tips For Growing Banana Trees

Banana trees are fast growing perennials that need a lot of sunlight to grow well. Whether you plant the trees in the ground or in a container, make sure it will get light most of the day. Avoid shady areas at all costs.

Keep in mind that the fruit of the banana tree can easily burn from the sun. Experts recommend covering the west side of fruit-producing banana trees with a shade cloth to prevent burning.

Banana plants can be a bit finicky, so it is very important to use the proper soil mixture. The plants like well-drained soil that is rocky. Soils containing lava sand or lava rock are ideal for banana growing. An ideal soil for banana growing is similar to what you would find in Hawaii.

If you have trouble finding the right type of potting soil, you can use potting soils suitable for growing cactus plants. Do not use regular potting soil or soil taken from your garden. Organo Patio Mix made by GroWell Industries is recommended as a good banana-growing medium by many sources. Good drainage is vital. The addition of 20 percent perlite to the potting soil mixture will help promote drainage.

Ideally, bananas grow best between temperatures between 54 and 80 degrees Farrenheit. All but the hardiest banana varieties stop growing when temperatures fall below 53 degrees Fahrenheit. Growth stops when temperatures reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

It takes a long time for a banana plant to produce fruit. Count on bananas needing 10 to 15 months with warm temperatures and no frost to produce a flower stalk. The plants also do better when protected from the wind.

Banana trees are a nice addition to gardens and yards, especially in warm climates. While your patience may run a bit thin waiting for a banana to eat, the plants themselves are quite attractive and make very popular house and/or garden foliage plants.

When planting a banana plant, dig a hole that is twice the size of the root system. Make it a depth of one-and-a-half feet. You can put organic composted manure in the bottom of the hole before adding a base of a couple of inches of the appropriate soil. Place the banana plant in the hole and add soil while gently compacting it around the roots.

It is important to make sure the banana plant has sufficient water. It is best to water the plant every other day during the warmest months. A good rule of thumb for establishing the need for water is to feel the soil. When the top one-half to one inch of soil is dry, water is needed.

If you're lucky enough to have your banana plant produce fruit, harvesting can be interesting. The bad news is that you have to cut the plant down to get the fruit. Don't fret because the plant would die off once it finishes fruiting. The good news is that new plants will grow from the root system.