Resumen

SANCHEZ F, Luis  y  GAMBOA, Erbert. Weed control by herbicides and mechanical methods on early stage of coffee plantations. Bioagro [online]. 2004, vol.16, n.2, pp.133-136. ISSN 1316-3361.

During the first two years after coffee planting abundant weed control is needed to keep the plantation free of competing plants, which causes high costs and labor time. With the objective of searching for alternative control methods an experiment was performed to evaluate the use of herbicides in a 6 month-old plantation located in Bramón, Táchira, Venezuela. Treatments were oxyfluorfen 960 g a.i./ha, and napropamida 2 kg a.i./ha, both diluted in 880 L of water applied with a pack sprayer. Additionally, the traditional weed control using machete and back hoe were evaluated. A completely randomized design with five replications and 15 plants per plot were used. The herbicides did not cause damage to the crop, nor affected the growth of the plants (P£ 0.01). Oxyfluorfen was the best treatment in maintaining the crop free of weeds for about 90 days as compared to 50 days by the traditional controls.

Palabras clave : Coffea arabica; oxyfluorfen; napropamida.