The study aims to shed light on the composition of the substrates and their efficiency.
A new study developed by the Honduran Coffee Institute, supported by MOCCA, evaluated two sources of organic matter: chicken manure and vermicompost, as well as EcoPil technology, with the purpose of determining the best mixture for the development of coffee plants in the nursery stage.
According to IHCAFE (2021), when a producer acquires the seed to establish the nursery, he must take into account that the seed comes from a reliable source, preferably with varietal purity from plantations with good production and stable behavior. Having taken this into account, he must then take care of the substrate for the nursery.
Although IHCAFE recommends using a ratio of 70 percent soil and 30 percent organic matter, no evaluations had been conducted on the efficiency of different sources of organic matter, so the MOCCA program, with advice from World Coffee Research, provided support to IHCAFE for the development of this research.
“This study aims to shed light on the composition of substrates and their efficiency, for which two sources of organic matter were evaluated: chicken manure and vermicompost in three proportions of 20, 30 and 40 percent. Additionally, it evaluates the substrate used with a new seedling production technology called EcoPil,” said Allan Erazo, Coordinator of the Soil Program and the Agricultural Chemical Laboratory of IHCAFE.
MOCCA is a 7-year initiative funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through its Food for Progress Program, which seeks to improve agricultural productivity and expand trade in agricultural products. The MOCCA project is being executed by a consortium led by TechnoServe. Lutheran World Relief leads the cocoa activities.
About the research
Eight treatments were evaluated in the trial using a split-plot design with three replicates. Each experimental unit consisted of 80 plants per treatment for a total of 720 seedlings planted in a substrate with a mixture of decomposed chicken manure and 720 planted in a substrate with a mixture of vermicompost.
In addition to the treatments mentioned above, two control groups were included. The first group consisted of a treatment where only soil was used without organic fertilizer, with a total of 480 plants distributed in the three blocks. The second control group used the EcoPil technology and also had a total of 480 plants distributed in the three blocks. In summary, the trial included a total of 2,400 plants in its entirety.
The conventional technology treatments (use of bags) had the same agronomic management, which was based mainly on manual weed control once a month and a nutrition program in three diluted fertilizations at a dose of 2.26 pounds (36 ounces) of 18-46-0 fertilizer, dissolved in 4 gallons of water, applying 50 cc per plant, making the first application 20 days after transplanting from the seedbed to the bag, the following fertilizations were made every 30 days, making a total of 3 fertilizations. While the nutrition program in the EcoPil treatment was based on the recommendations of its parent company, using a mixture of Nitrabor, Nitrocomplex, KCl and Magnesium Sulfate.
Variables measured
- An initial physical-chemical analysis of the soil was performed (physical: texture and apparent density) (chemical: nutritional composition of the sample) used to fill the bags.
- A chemical analysis was performed on the pure sample of vermicompost and chicken manure.
- 15 days after the chapola was planted during the first reading, soil samples were taken from each of the treatments with the different percentages of chicken manure and vermicompost, to perform the chemical analysis.13 Evaluation of the Development of Coffee Seedlings
- From each treatment, 5 plants were evaluated every 15 days from the sowing of the chapola, the following variables were measured: plant height, number of leaves per plant, stem thickness, root volume and root length, fresh weight and dry weight of the leaves.
7 readings were made in 3 months (every 15 days), in which 35 plants were evaluated per treatment, for a total of 105 plants evaluated in the 3 blocks per treatment, the remaining 72 plants of each treatment in the three blocks will follow another evaluation process at the field level.
About the conclusions
The 30% chicken manure treatment was the best in 6 of the 8 phenological variables evaluated (stem thickness, number of leaves, root weight, root volume, fresh weight and dry weight) than the rest of the treatments.
- The treatments with chicken manure had the best root weight and volume.
- In general terms, chicken manure is the best alternative as organic matter in the substrate for the production of coffee seedlings, partly due to its high phosphorus content.
- The treatment with Soil plus 40% Vermicompost had the longest root length at the end of the trial.
- The treatments based on vermicompost did not surpass the control (pure soil) in this trial in most of the phenological variables evaluated and were much lower in yield compared to those based on chicken manure.
- The plants raised with soil plus chicken manure substrate have a lower cost.
- The EcoPil technology was not favored in any of the phenological variables evaluated.
Statistical analysis
Statistical analyses regarding the comparison of the means of the variables measured in each of the treatments were carried out in each of the readings using the Duncan test at 5% significance through the Infostat software.
Final results by variables at 126 days
Interaction between treatments and study variables
In the Biplot graph of principal components, the interaction of the treatments with the phenological variables can be observed. On the right plane, it can be observed that the treatments of 20% Chicken Manure and 30% Chicken Manure have a stronger interaction with the variables studied; this indicates that, for this study, the seedlings of these two treatments had better root development (size, weight and volume of the root) and better aerial development (size, thickness of the stem, number of leaves, fresh weight of the plant and dry weight of the plant). In contrast, the EcoPil treatment had the lowest interaction with the variables evaluated.
