Appropiate Plant Density per Unit Area of Arabica Coffee

Abstract

This experiment was trailed to find out appropiate density per unit area of 3 arabica coffee cultivars namely: Caturra, Catimor and Typica. Three levels of density were tested; 400, 700 and 1,000 trees/rai. A five-year experimental result shows that cultivars and levels of density affected microclimate. Light intensity was inversely proportional to density, on the other hand, soil moisture content at various depths was directly proportional to density. For coffee growth aspcet; Typica especially at 1,000 trees/rai, showed higher average tree height and canopy diameter when compared to other cultivars and diffent densities. Caturra growing at 700 trees/rai had the hightest number of primary branches. Catimor at 700 trees/rai produced the highest leaf area index. When yield component was taken into consideration, it was found that Catimor at 700 trees/rai had the best performance, i.e. the highest fruiting primary branches, number of nodes/branch, number of fruits/ node, and weight of 100 fruits. However, weight of green coffee from 100 frutis was the highest in Typica at 400 trees/rai. Total yield of fruits and green coffee per tree was the highest in Catimor at 700 trees/rai, which were 9,207.3 grams and 1,804.5 grams respectively. Every cultivars at 1,000 tress/rai had the highest production cost, i.e. 55,900 Baht/rai but when considering the turn over, Catimor at 1,000 trees/rai gave the highest income which was 63,134 Baht/rai and Catimor at 700 trees/rai was slightly lower, 60,446 Baht/rai. Finally, unit cost of investment in 700 trees/rai was the lowest which was 32.14 Bath per 1 kg. green coffee.