It was a warm and breezy autumn evening in Karachi and my daughters were running around the garden at their great-grandmother’s house. The garden has a variety of flowering plants, ornamental vines, aromatic herbs and trees with ripened fruit. From a distance, I could see them chasing butterflies and running over the lush, green grass.

Suddenly, both of them stopped and seemed to be picking up something from the ground. Initially, I thought it could be a champa [frangipani] flower growing on the side wall or an attractive stone. Both of them were curiously debating the identification of the object in question.

My elder daughter thought it was an acorn, like the one the sabre-toothed squirrel Scrat famously chases in the Ice Age films. I pointed out to them that what they had found was not an acorn but an underdeveloped coconut, which had fallen from the decades-old coconut tree above their heads. Within minutes, the girls had collected over two dozen of these baby coconuts spread around the tree, with plans to use them for any potential school project.

It was good that they did so because around half of the fallen baby coconuts decay within three to six months of their appearance. Others get consumed by wildlife or die due to unfavourable conditions.

From water stress to weak pollination, a number of factors can cause coconut trees to drop underdeveloped nuts — here’s what growers can do about it

The small percentage of baby coconuts that grow into trees take from three to eight years to start producing flowers and pollination to begin, depending on the variety. While pollination occurs within a single day, fruit development is a longer process. Young coconuts are harvested for water after six to eight months. Coconuts that have greater flesh (kernel) content take from one year to 14 months to mature.

Only a small fraction of potential fruits survives to harvest. The tree sheds underdeveloped fruits and immature flower embryos throughout the flowering and fruiting stages. This phenomenon is known as ‘button shedding’ and refers to the premature dropping of young nuts, known as buttons. These buttons do not have any coconut meat within and contain minimal coconut water, if at all.

In certain cases, this shedding can reach abnormal proportions. Gardeners, however, can minimise the impact of causative elements and improve fruiting. One of the most common reasons of button shedding is water stress. Compared to others, coconut trees require consistent watering in large quantity. Irregular, reduced watering and drought-like conditions can result in button shedding in coconut trees.

Similarly, excessive watering or rain can, sometimes, also provoke the coconut tree into shedding off underdeveloped, immature and small coconuts. This usually occurs due to inadequate water drainage around the roots and tree.

Any changes in the soil pH can also be a contributor. Soil that is too acidic or alkaline can promote button shedding in the fruiting tree. Usually, water stress and other environmental factors are the root cause of changing pH of the soil. Lime is applied for the soil’s pH correction.

A tree struggling with nutrient deficiency can also be an easy target for button shedding. Other than major nutrients such as potassium and nitrogen, the lack of boron in the soil can also induce nut dropping. In such cases, a careful application of borax powder in the recommended quantity is effective — it changes with the age of the coconut tree. It is important to stick to recommended quantities. Excessive use of borax powder can negatively impact other factors of tree growth and may even render the soil inhospitable to other plants.

Infestation by certain pests and fungal infections can also trigger abnormal button shedding in coconut trees. Finally, weak pollination, especially during the rainy season or windy weather, unavailability of pollen and lack of pollinators can also lead to button shedding.

While natural button shedding is unavoidable, following the aforementioned guidelines can significantly reduce abnormal button shedding. One should also remember that all the flowers can never grow into mature fruits due to space, weight and resource constraints of the tree to manage all the fruits simultaneously.

Please send your queries and emails to doctree101@hotmail.com. The writer is a physician and a host for the YouTube channel ‘DocTree Gardening’ promoting organic kitchen gardening

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 19th, 2026