TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COFFEE PLANT (Coffea arabica L.)

Abstract

Coffee growing in Mexico is of great importance and is considered
a strategic activity. However, as of 2012, the national production of
coffee was devastated by the affectation of rust (Hemileia vastatrix).
In view of this situation, it is necessary to propagate coffee trees in
a massive way for the renewal of coffee plantations. An innovative
proposal is the establishment of nursery with red shadow mesh,
which replaces the traditional black color. This proposal is based
on the fact that red light causes greater efficiency in coffee trees in
a range of 400 to 700 nm. However, results are controversial due
to the lack of experimental support in Mexico. For this reason, the
objective of this work was to analyze the production of biomass
and its photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in coffee plants of
Geisha variety in nursery under different conditions in shade colors,
being these gray, blue, aluminized, black, pearl and red, in Huatusco,
Veracruz. The response variables were the weight of fresh and
dry base material, as well as PAR. The results indicated significant
differences for the variables. The pearl and red shades had the highest
values, with 12.3 g for fresh weight and 3.3 g for dry weight, after
seven months of growth. PAR values for plants geowing under such
shdes were 855.3 ?mol m2 s^-1 and 796.24 ?mol m2 s^-1, respectively.