Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Govindappa M, Thiruppathi M, Shivaprasad P, Imayavaramban V and Sriramachandrasekharan MV

Abstract:
With the primary objective of assessing the influence of using different proportions of organic sources of nutrients and foliar nutrition at two leaf stage in Arabica coffee seedlings, nursery experiment was conducted at Coffee Research Substation, Chettalli, Kodagu District, Karnataka state during 2018-19. The experiment consists of different ratio of substrates in the main plot namely PM_1- 6:2:1, (jungle soil, farm yard manure and river sand - farmer’s practice) PM ₂- 6:3:1(jungle soil, farm yard manure and river sand), PM ₃- 6:3:1( jungle soil, goat manure and river sand), PM ₄- 6:2:1 (jungle soil, goat manure and river sand), PM ₅-6:3:1 (jungle soil, sheep manure and river sand), PM_6- 6:2:1 (jungle soil, sheep manure and river sand). In the Subplots, nutrient management practice was accommodated such as control (without nutrient), application of DAP @ 2.0 g plnat^-1 with and without foliar application of ammonium nitrate at 1.0 and 1.5 per cent at 2 leaves stage. The results indicated that seedling height and girth, shoot and root dry matter, number of seminal roots and root volume of seedlings were higher with the potting mixture of six parts jungle soil, three parts goat manure and one part river sand. Application of 2 g DAP per seedlings along with foliar application of 1 per N at two leaves stages excelled all other nutrient management treatments. However, Growing of Arabica coffee seedlings in the potting substrate of six parts jungle soil, three parts goat manure and one part river sand along with soil application of DAP @2 g seedling^-1 and foliar application of 1.0 per cent N through ammonium nitrate was found to be the best management practice for producing robust arabica coffee seedlings.