Abstract

ENCALADA CORDOVA, Max; SOTO CARRENO, Francisco  and  MORALES GUEVARA, Donaldo. Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) seedling growth with four shade levels under two soil and climate conditions of Ecuador. cultrop [online]. 2016, vol.37, n.2, pp. 72-78. ISSN 1819-4087.

An experiment was developed under two soil and climate conditions of Ecuador: “Chaguarpamba” and “Yantzaza”, with the aim of studying the effect of four shade levels: 0, 30, 50 and 80 % on coffee seedling growth in the nursery. A sample experimental design was used in stripes. Destructive samplings were performed from the first pair of true leaves every 25 days, evaluating height, dry mass and leaf area. Data were processed through a one-way classification variance analysis. To study growth dynamics of the total dry mass and leaf area, data were fitted to a second-degree polynomial exponential function for calculating absolute growth rate. Concerning the indicators evaluated, it was generally observed that the best treatments were 80 and 50 % shade, whereas less developed seedlings were grown at full solar exposure. Furthermore, treatments of 80 and 50 % had a greater growth and reached its maximum values before the others in both sites. Regarding sites, plant growth at the early stage was faster in “Yantzaza” than in “Chaguarpamba”, which was related to temperature that was higher at growth beginning in the first site with a trend to decrease over time. However, the opposite occurred in “Chaguarpamba”, where temperature gradually increased towards the end of the nursery period

Keywords : shade; coffee plant; growth; temperature; Coffea.

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