Well-managed coconut nurseries can unexpectedly encounter low germination and poor seedling development. In recent years, an obscure fungal infection has caused losses between 5 and 50 percent. The nursery methods used speeded germination but weakened natural protection to disease. Some very simple measures can reduce the risk of nursery diseases and eliminate the need for expensive and potentially hazardous chemical control treatments. An improved nursery programme proposes ten steps to be followed from the time of reaping the seednuts to the emergence of the sprout through the husk. The plan is equally suitable for bare-root or polybag planting systems and even where no nursery diseases are expected, costs and labour requirements are reduced by doing away with unnecessary pre-germinatoin treatments