The Growth and Production of Coffee in Different Shade, Pruning and Fertilizing Conditions

Abstract

Coffee plants (Coffea sp.) are C3 plant groups, with characteristic of low photosynthetic efficiency, which is due to the occurance of photorespiration. In simple agroforestry systems, legumesare commonly used as shade trees. In addition, pruning and fertilizing are also very important cultivation techniques incoffee plantation business. This study was aimed toto obtain the maximum potential of coffee production at a certain height in Humbahas Regency with a package treatment of pruning, fertilizing and shade technology. Plant experiments were carried out at an altitude zone of 1200-1300 meters above sea level(masl) which was designed in the form of Splits plot design. There are three factors tested, the main plot is shade with a levelof without shade (N0) and shade (N1); the main subplots are pruning, namely pruning with the farmer system (P1) and pruning recommendations (P2); while thesubplots are fertilization methods consisting of: farmers' fertilizing level (O0), giving organic fertilizer from coffee pulp at a level of 10 kg / tree (O1), giving organic fertilizer from manure at a level of 10 kg / tree (O2), giving phosphate fertilizer (SP36) 150 g/ tree. The growth and production of coffee plants are influenced by the interaction between shade plants, pruning and fertilization. On all altitudes level in this experiment, vegetative growth in plants were improvedin not shaded by pruning conditionsand application oforganic fertilizer, both with manure and coffee pulp compost. However, the best yield production was obtained at under shaded conditions in which the plants were cut according to theprune recommendations.