Abstract
Floral initiation in coffee has been shown to be stimulated by short days in young plants, but the inductive stimulus for mature plants is still not clear. Experiments were conducted to determine whether floral initiation in immature and mature plants is promoted by short photoperiods, and delayed by long photoperiods. In a growth chamber study, 18-month-old coffee (Coffea arabica L. cv. Guatemalan) plants exposed to 8 hr photoperiods developed flower buds after 4 weeks, whereas no floral initiation was observed on the plants exposed to 16 hr photoperiods for ten weeks. Trees growing in the field were illuminated with incandescent light from midnight to 3:00 a.m. from July to December 1989. The control plants received no artificial light during the same time period. Night light interruption delayed flower initiation until the end of December on branches that were fully exposed to the light. On control trees, flower buds started to emerge at the beginning of November. These results indicate that in immature and mature coffee plants floral initiation is stimulated by short days, and delayed by long days.
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