Germination of ‘San Ramon’ Arabica Coffee (Coffeaarabica) Seeds as Affected by Sulfuric Acid Treatment

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of sulfuric acid treatment on the germination and emergence of coffee seeds and to determine the best soaking duration of coffee seeds in sulfuric acid. This study was conducted at the Pomology Project, area of the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Benguet State University, La Trinidad, Benguet from October 2013 to March 2014. Results revealed that the different concentrations of sulfuric acid did not significantly affect the number of days to emergence, median emergence times, median spread of emergence times, percentage emergence, and number of days to first appearance of leaves, percentage survival, percentage mortality and vigor of the coffee seedling. On the other hand, significant differences were observed among the treatments in terms of the number of days to emergence, median emergence times, and median spread of emergence times, percentage emergence and number of days to first appearance of leaves. However, there were no significant interaction effects observed between the different concentrations and soaking durations of sulfuric acid on all the parameters evaluated.