Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) seedling growth with four shade levels under two soil and climate conditions of Ecuador

Main Article Content

Max Encalada Córdova

Abstract

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 seconddegree 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.

Article Details

How to Cite
Encalada Córdova, M. (2016). Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) seedling growth with four shade levels under two soil and climate conditions of Ecuador. Cultivos Tropicales, 37(2), 72–78. Retrieved from https://ediciones.inca.edu.cu/index.php/ediciones/article/view/1231
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Original Article