Fig. 7 shows that, while fluctuating, TA tends to reduce
from 0.076% to 0.067%. Small changes in TA probably cause
TSS to sweeten the juice as suggested by its Thai name ‘‘Nham
Whan’’ (‘‘sweet juice’’). Fig. 8 shows that TSS/TA tended to
increase with t from 74.8 to 133.6 Brix %1
, with fluctuations
throughout the three stages because of the fluctuating effect
of TA. Fig. 8 shows that flesh thickness FT uniformly increases
from 0.41 mm to 2.12 mm during the immature stage. It then
increases to 3.71 mm by the end of the mature stage, and
continues to increase linearly to 4.88 mm at the end of the
over-mature stage. The linear change in FT corresponds well
with the significant relationship between flesh thickness and
maturity of Philippine coconut reported previously (Gatchalian
et al., 1994).