Section IB: Pruning

The information below, is an excerpt from the "Recommendations for Coffee Berry Borer Integrated Pest Management in Hawai‘i 2020" document. The complete article can be downloaded here.
CBB management starts with several strip-picking rounds, including after harvest and before pruning. Strip-pick ALL (green, ripe, over-ripe, and raisin) coffee PRIOR to pruning to remove berries that otherwise would be dislodged and left in the field during the pruning process.

Stump-pruning by block is currently the only pruning method for establishing a large area without food or shelter for CBB. This pruning method can help to make other activities easier or more effective (e.g., harvesting more easily, achieving better spray coverage and penetra-tion into the interior of the tree, etc.)
  • Stump-prune trees AFTER strip-picking all green, ripe, over-ripe, and raisin coffee. Stump- pruning in blocks may control CBB infestations within an orchard during the first year of production.
  • Stump pruning by rows, i.e., Beaumont-Fukunaga style of pruning, will not control CBB.
  • Avoid stump-pruning during drought. Trees need rainfall or irrigation and proper nutrition to recover.
  • If you must stump-prune during a drought, retain a “nurse vertical” to reduce tree shock and losses from stumping. The nurse vertical can be removed after new shoots emerge, and new shoots should be thinned to 3 or 4 main verticals [2].
 
If not actively farming coffee, consider stump-pruning your coffee trees when neighbors are pruning their trees to help neighboring farms in their attempts to control CBB.
Block-stumping
This is an example of field that was stump pruned following the end of harvest and after strip-picking. No berries developed until the following season, leaving about one year for CBB to find other homes and to emigrate from this field. Traps can be set up in the field to capture and kill residual beetles.

One of the smallest known stumped blocks is an area with about 250 trees.
Depiction of a nurse vertical
Picture
fao.org
All but one vertical, the nurse vertical, is removed from the tree. The lower laterals should be trimmed on the nurse vertical to increase the amount of sunlight reaching the new verticals and to allow the new growth to grow straight and unimpeded.
As the new verticals establish, thin and retain the 3 or 4 strongest, healthiest and best located verticals. Once the new verticals have established, remove the nurse vertical.
Remember that strip-picking, the removal of ALL berries and raisins from the tree, must be done BEFORE pruning.
Additional publications and information related to coffee pruning:
Poster presentation at the Hawaii Coffee Association's Annual Conference
2019 Pruning Techniques to Increase Profitability of Coffee Farms: 2019 Update

Further reading:
[2] Beaumont, J.H., and E.T. Fukunaga. 1958. Factors affecting the growth and yield of coffee in Kona, Hawaii. Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 113. http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/B-113.pdf.
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