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    Interesting Plants My Personal Observations
    Interesting Plants My Personal Observations
    Interesting Plants My Personal Observations
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Interesting Plants My Personal Observations

    By Daniel Zimmermann

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    About this ebook

    The first two articles treat copra production in the Philippines and growing bananas in the Philippines. Also treated are personal experiences with papaya plants, sweet potatoes, iipil-iipil, Aloe vera, pinto peam, dandelion, eggplant, Brugmansia, the polka-dot plant, lemon grass, kangkong, chayote, basil, alugbati bitter gourd, and
    Bermuda grass.
    These are good articles for those who are beginning to sstudy botany. They contain solid scientific information, and many scientific terms are explained. In several cases, I explained the the Greek and Latin origin of scientific names of the plants.
    I believe that God created these plants in the beginning, and this is important background information when approaching these articles. However, not much philosophy occurs in these articles.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLulu.com
    Release dateMay 21, 2018
    ISBN9781387826148
    Interesting Plants My Personal Observations

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      Book preview

      Interesting Plants My Personal Observations - Daniel Zimmermann

      Interesting Plants My Personal Observations

      Interesting Plants: My Personal Observations

      By Daniel Zimmermann

      Copra Production in the Philippines

      Copra production is an important enterprise. Without copra production, there would be no palm oil on the supermarket shelves.

      In the Philippines, copra production may be a family business. The whole operation may take place on a couple acres of land adjacent to the family dwelling.

      The first step on the road to copra production is to get some mature coconuts. This is easily done, since neighboring farmers have to sell their coconuts somewhere. Also copra producers may have coconut plantations of their own.

      Coconut palms grow to a towering height. Some coconuts fall down by themselves, but most have to be cut down. This is done by a long bamboo pole with a sickle-shaped knife tied to the end. This device is called a kuhit in the Cebuano language. Sometimes extra poles have to be tied to the end of the kuhit so that it can reach the coconuts.

      Some farmers prefer to climb the coconut palm and cut off the ripe coconuts with a machete.

      Many Philippine farmers do not have trucks. To convey the coconuts to the site of copra production, they use a horse. They tie two large baskets to the horse in such a way that one basket hangs down on each side. Even if the farmer has a truck, he still needs the horse to carry the coconuts away from the trees to a convenient place. It is difficult, if not impossible, to drive a truck to each tree on a typical Philippine coconut plantation.

      When the coconuts arrive at the site of family copra production, the work begins. Typically, a family hires neighbors to help them.

      A coconut has an outer fibrous husk which is called bunut in Cebuano. These husks are removed with the help of a device called a buntanan. This is a Y-shaped frame with a pole sticking up and a mitten-shaped knife at the end of the pole. It is also possible to use a machete or an axe, but these are not as effective as a buntanan.

      The husks are allowed to litter the ground for a while, but later they are stored in a building that looks like a U.S. corn crib.

      Inside the husk, a coconut has a hard shell which is called a bagol in Cebuano. The coconut shell is cut in half by striking it with the machete.

      Inside the coconut shell is the edible part of the coconut. This is removed with a device called a lugit. A lugit has the following components: a handle attached to an S-shaped bar with a sharp circular disk at the end. A worker takes hold of the handle and gouges out the coconut meat with the sharp disk.

      The coconut meat is converted into copra in a structure called a landahan. A landahan has an open pit for fire below and a horizontal bamboo frame above. The coconut meat is placed on the bamboo frame, where it is heated by the fire.

      In the safest type of landahan, the fire is not directly below the bamboo frame, but off to one side. In this case, a cement conduit or tunnel channels the heat of the fire, so that it travels horizontally through the passage and then upward to the bamboo frame, upon which the coconut pieces are resting. The bamboo frame is enclosed by a low cement wall to concentrate the heat on the coconut pieces. Sometimes wood is used instead of cement for the wall.

      The preferred fuel is the dried husk of the coconut. The fire must be tended. Dried coconut husks are added as needed. The coconut pieces have to cook all day and part of the night before they are converted into copra.

      The next day, when the landahan is sufficiently cool, the well cooked pieces are separated from the half-cooked pieces. The half-cooked pieces are placed on the bottom next to the bamboo slats and the cooked pieces on top. The landahan fire is kindled once more and the coconut pieces are allowed to cook for about a day. When the cooked pieces become cool, the process is finished.

      There are variant methods of processing copra. The coconuts may be cooked before removing the shell. Sometimes fire is dispensed with altogether and the coconut pieces are simply allowed to dry in the sun.

      Growing Bananas in the Philippines

      Andres Bello, a talented grammarian and poet, vividly described how easy it is to grow bananas. His description applies to banana growing in the Philippines. You can plant them any time of the year with good results.

      In addition to ordinary farm tools like shovels and machetes, Philippine banana farmers make use of a handy digging tool called a bolo. It is a small blade with a handle attached. The blade of my bolo is six inches long and three inches wide. It has a convex cutting edge. Its wooden handle is about as long as the blade, perhaps a little shorter. My father-in-law has a bolo that is considerably larger. They come in different sizes.

      A Philippine banana farmer does not grow bananas from seeds. Instead, he digs up a saha by the roots and transplants it in an appropriate place. Saha

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