Renovation, luminosity, improvement of the plant’s architecture and increased lifespan are some of the benefits provided by coffee tree pruning.
Coffee tree pruning comprises the partial or total elimination of the aboveground part of the plant after harvest. Its main objective is the renewal by induction of productive branches of plants depleted by age, injuries caused by climatic phenomena or incidence of pests and diseases.
Other advantages of this agricultural practice: it promotes more luminosity and aeration of coffee trees in crops with closure, improves the plant architecture by renovation and adjustment of the crown structure, reduces the height and sides of the plants to facilitate cultural treatments and harvesting in the next years old. Thus, the coffee grower will have an increase in the useful life of coffee production with vigor and productivity.
The best time for pruning is right after harvesting, preferably between July and August. In regions with frost risks, they should be carried out after the period of greatest occurrence of this phenomenon. In addition, pruning should be carried out after the high harvest year, when the prospect is for low production in the following year.
Main types of pruning:
Recepa: Recepa is a low, drastic pruning that promotes the almost total renewal of the vegetative structure of the coffee trees. It consists of cutting the orthotropic branch at a height of 20 to 40 cm from the ground, called “recepa low”, or 40 to 100 cm, called “recepa high”.
Neckline: it is a type of light pruning, in which only the high part of the main stem is cut.
Skeleton: this pruning consists of cutting the lateral branches of the coffee tree 20 to 50 cm from the trunk.
Topping: it also consists of cutting the productive branches, from 50 to 80 cm from the trunk.
Sprouts: consists of the removal of shoots that are born in the orthotropic branch of the plant, called “thieves” branches.
