Pacific Agriculture and Natural Resources

Coffee can be cultivated under various management schemes from heavy shade to full sun. Higher yields are generally achieved in full sun but often at the expense of smaller beans and greater requirements for water and nutrients. We compared growth, yield, bean size, and total value in a coffee agroecosystem in Hawaii grown in full sun or at two shade levels (30 and 50%) under Leucaena variety KX2 trees. Coffee under full sun had more fruiting nodes per lateral and more beans per node, resulting in significantly greater yields. Bean size, however, increased with shade level. For both low and medium shade, the majority of the yield fraction was in the largest size class (≥ 19 mm). As a result, there was no significant difference between low shade and full sun in the total value of the beans. Within a mechanized production system, the low shade treatment with Leucaena-KX2 represents an optimum trade-off between yield and bean size.