The Effect of Immersion Time at Initial Water Temperature of 50°C and Gibberellin Concentration on Viability of Arabica Coffee Seeds (Coffea arabica L.)

Abstract

 The coffee nursery process takes a relatively long time hence it can affect the production period of coffee plants because of it a seed treatment is needed before planting i.e. immersion with the initial water temperature and in the gibberellin solution. This research aim was to obtain the immersion time of the seeds at the initial water temperature of 50°C and the optimal gibberellins concentration to increase the viability of Arabica coffee seeds. The method used was Factorial Randomized Group Design with two factors and three replications. The first factor was the immersion time with an initial water temperature of 50°C with 4 levels, namely; 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes. The second factor was the gibberellins concentration with 4 levels, namely; 0, 50, 100 and 150 ppm. The results showed that an increase in the immersion time of the seeds at the initial water temperature of 50°C was able to accelerate the germination rate and accelerate the time of leaves appearance. The increased of gibberellin concentration can accelerate germination rates, increase the percentage of normal sprouts, decrease the percentage of dead seeds, increase the vigor index, increase hypocotyl length, increase root length, accelerate leaf emergence and decrease the percentage of abnormal sprouts but reduce the percentage growth potential. The treatments interaction can increase the viability of Arabica coffee seeds, namely germination rate for 21.74 days, the percentage of abnormal germination by 0%, vigor index of 0.85 germinating seeds/day, and root length of 8.78 cm.