Preservation of wood recipients by chemicals and their influence on the growth of coffee seedlings

The establishment of coffee plantations in São Paulo is being done by planting one or several coffee seedlings per hole. The seedlings used are generally grown in special recipients made of thin sheets of pine wood. Due to the long time that the seedlings remain in the nursery before they are transplanted to the field, the recipient preservation against rotting becomes necessary. In the present paper the influence of the following chemical compounds on the recipient preservation was discussed: creosote, creosote and burned oil, copper sulphate at 3 per cent, chromo-arsene-fluo-phenolic at 2 per cent and copper sulphate at 1.5 per cent. Polyethylene bags were also used for seedling growth comparison. Fourteen months after the seedling transplantation the recipients were examined in order to evaluate their decaying state. Creosote and burned oil isolatedly or in their mixture gave the best results. The height and weight of the aerial part of the seedlings were not influenced by the chemicals used in the wood recipient preservation (Table 1). Taller and heavier seedlings were obtained using polyethylene bags (Table 2).