Before you cut: don't lose money at the mill

When to cut

UnripeBlack, no loose fruit. Don't cut.

Almost ripeTurning red. Wait for the next round.

RipeRed-orange, 1–2 loose fruits on the ground. Cut now.

OverripeMany fruits falling. Cut today and pick up every loose fruit.

Left too longDry and empty: the oil is lost. Cut it out.

Rosbi et al., Outdoor Tenera FFB dataset (Zenodo), CC BY 4.0 · Ordinal Ripeness Dataset (Mendeley Data), CC BY 4.0

Is the bunch ripe?

• Cut only after fruits have started to fall. ICAR-IIOPR counts a bunch fully ripe when about 10 fruits have dropped; TNAU says 5 loose fruits for adult palms and 10 for young palms.
• Black or dark purple fruits with nothing on the ground: don't cut. Most of the oil forms in the last two weeks, so early cutting loses oil.
• Not sure? Use Palm Day's 'Check bunch before cutting' on the Home screen.

Cut it right

• Keep the round: every 10–15 days, closer together in the rainy season. Late rounds give overripe and empty bunches.
• Cut the stalk short, no more than about 5 cm. Long stalks add useless weight and are deducted.
• Pick up every loose fruit and send it with the bunches: loose fruit is about 40% oil.

To the mill

• Get bunches to the mill within 24 hours of cutting. Bunches that wait go stale and lose oil quality.
• Keep bunches clean and dry: no mud, sand or soaked bunches, and don't send rotten or rat-eaten ones.
• The fruit price is set from the oil the mill gets. Unripe and stale bunches lower it for every farmer in the zone.

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