Development of coffee seedlings with biostimulants

Abstract

Sustainable coffee production has become an alternative to aggregate value to coffee. Biostimulants are presented to increasing coffee quality and production. This study aims to compare and evaluate the application of biostimulants in the initial development of coffee seedlings. An experiment was carried out with applications of biostimulants: (i) 4-indole-3-ylbutyric acid + gibberellic acid + cinetina, AIA+AG+C; (ii) foliar fertilizer + algae, F+A; (iii) vegetal extracts + gibberellic acid, EV+AA. After 94 days of applying the biostimulants, monitored the length of the aerial part (LAP), the number of leaves (NL), stem diameter, root biomass (pivoting, auxiliary and total). Results showed that the F+A promoted the greatest LAP, NL, and root biomass. AIA+AG+C showed similar performance as F+A in NL. There was a higher production of auxiliary roots with biostimulants impacting positively on plant paraments. Given the results, we concluded that biostimulants based on mixed foliar fertilizer + algae demonstrated to be a better alternative to increasing the devel opment of the aerial and root part of coffee seedlings.