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Coffee tree density optimization can improve fortunes of stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers who dominate the sub-sector at production level. An attractive example is with highly productive countries where high plant densities do increase area yield but across board recommendations are illogical especially with variety and agroecological variations. We aimed to compare two spacing regimes for growth response and pest incidence using Uganda’s unique C. canephora. Randomized complete block designs with three replications and eight plants per plot were established at four locations. Eleven growth variables namely stem girth (STG), number of internodes on stem, plant height (PH), canopy height, canopy diameter, number of primaries, number of active bearing primaries, length of longest primary (LLP), number of internodes on primary, leaf blade length and leaf blade width (LBW) were measured. Incidences of black coffee twig borer (BCTB), leaf eating beetles (LEB), leaf miners (LM), skeletonizers (SKL) and tailed caterpillars (TC) were also assessed. Highly significant differences between spacing regimes (p

Coffea canephora has non-limiting but unexploited yield and quality potential when compared with C. arabica. Coffee tree density optimization can improve fortunes of smallholder farmers. An attractive example is that high productive countries where high plant densities do increase area yield but across board recommendations are illogical especially with variety and agroecological variations. We aimed to compare two spacing regimes for growth response and pest incidence using Kituza Robusta clone. Randomized complete block designs with three replications and eight plants per plot were established at four agroecologically diverse on-farm locations. Eleven plant growth variables were measured. In addition incidences of five key pests were assessed. Data was collected on a 3-month interval starting from 12 up to 21 months after planting. Highly significant differences between spacing regimes (p