Evaluation of Nutrient Uptake Under Higher Density Planting of Coffee in Derived Savanna Zone of Nigeria

This study was conducted at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Uhonmora sub-Station in Derived savannah zone of Edo State, Nigeria in 2007 to evaluate the nutrient uptake of coffee at different density of planting. Treatments comprising of four spacing ( 3.0 m x 3.0 m, 2.5 m x 2.5 m, 2.0 m, x 2.0 m and 1.5 m x 1.5 m) with plant populations of 1111, 1600, 2500 and 4444 plants/ha respectively were used. Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used for the experiment with four replicates. Coffee seedlings were up-rooted, oven dried, milled and analysed chemically to determine the nutrient uptake. Yield data of bunch obtained from plantain used as inter-crop as well as shade crop in all the treatments were recorded. Data collected were subjected to ANOVA and LSD was used to separate the means. The result obtained showed that planting at a spacing of 1.5 m apart recorded the highest N, P, K. Ca and Mg uptake and closely followed by 2.0 m without any significant difference (P < O.05) between them. The 3.0 m spacing gave the least values. Higher density did not affect the yield of the plantain as there was no significant difference among the treatments. Therefore, the close spacing of 1.5 m and 2.0 m apart could be recommended to the coffee farmers to enhance more plant population per hectare instead of the recommended spacing of 3.0 m apart.