Vertical farming application with several growing media for coffee nurseries

College of Vocational Studies of IPB University, Bogor, West java, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: restu_puji@apps.ipb.ac.id

Abstract

Coffee is one of the plantation commodities that play an important role as a source of foreign exchange for the country. One alternative to overcome the land decrease in rural area is to utilize urban farming in the form of a vertical planting system. This study aimed to obtain alternative techniques for planting coffee seedlings using vertical farming and to determine the effect of vertical planting with several growing media on the growth of coffee seedlings. The study was arranged in a non-factorial Randomized Block Design (RBD) with four treatments, namely: 1) conventional nursery; 2) topsoil verticulture nursery; 3) topsoil and compost media verticulture, and 4) topsoil, compost, and husk charcoal media verticulture. The data were analyzed using the Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The observed variables included observations of the morphology of coffee seedlings and verticulture environmental factors. The results showed that vertical planting on the vegetative growth of coffee seedlings was not significantly different from conventional planting. Topsoil planting media and husk charcoal in vertical planting did not significantly affect the morphological growth of coffee seedlings. The combination of topsoil, husk charcoal and compost gave the best plant height of 12.4 cm at 13 weeks after planting.