Harvesting

40. Harvesting needs much time and much care, because only those fruit clusters which are cut d the right moment yield a lot of good-quality oil.

You must go through the plantation many times to pick the ripe clusters.

A cluster is ripe for harvesting when the fruits begin to turn red, and when 5 or 6 fruits drop to the ground. If you wait too long before harvesting the clusters, harvesting takes much more time, because you must pick up all the fruits that have dropped to the ground. The fruits will also yield less oil, and the oil will be of less good quality.

If you do not wait long enough before harvesting the clusters, the fruit will not be ripe enough.

It will be more difficult to separate the fruits from the clusters and the clusters will yield leas oil.

41. The clusters can be cut off with different tools

For oil palms 4 to 7 years old Cut the clusters with a chisel. Slip the chisel between the stem and the leaf; in this way you can cut off the cluster without cutting the leaf below it.

For oil palms 7 to 12 years old Cut the clusters with a machete. If the clusters are too high up, climb up the tree by putting your feet on the base of the leaves.

For oil palms older than 12 years Cut the clusters with a long-armed sickle.

Cut the clusters with a long-armed sickle.

Tree

If the clusters are too high up to be cut with the long-armed sickle, use bamboo ladders, or else climb up the tree with a belt; you can also wear spiked shoes.

Any clusters that have dropped to the ground should be collected in a basket.

Fruits that have come loose must also be picked up.