Abstract

An experiment on arabica coffee (Coffea arabica L.) genotypes for biometrical traits evaluation was carried out at Chettalli in Karnataka during the period 2004 - 2007 to study the variation in the vegetative and yield component traits. Eighty five genotypes exhibited significant variation for all the traits in three seasons of the study. The per se performance of present study revealed that the traits viz., plant height, bush diameter, stem girth, number of primary branches, length of primary branches, internodal length, leaf area, number of flowers per axil, number of flowers per node, fruit length, fruit width, number of fruits per node, fruit set percentage, weight of fruits per plant and percentage of fruit fertility were high in Tafarikela, Maragogipe, Cauvery x Sln.9 and S.12, Kaffa. For the trait viz., percentage of A grade beans and weight of 100 A grade beans, the genotypes Cioccie, Agaro, Maragogipe and Taferikela recorded the highest per se values. Mean percentage of caffeine content was higher in the genotype Kents, closely followed by Agaro, Maragogipe, Tafarikela and Cauvery x Sln. 9. Hence the genotypes can be exploited in selection for further breeding programmes for the respective traits. The genotypes Taferikela, Maragogipe, Cauvery x Sln.9, S12, Kaffa and Agaro recorded higher fruit length and fruit width. Mean performance of clean coffee per hectare showed that the genotype Tafarikela registered the highest value followed by Maragogipe, Cauvery x Sln.9, S12, Kaffa and Agaro.

Keywords: Genotypes, biometrical traits, per se performance, caffeine, grade, clean coffee