Abstract:The object was to explore the efficient water-saving method of arabica coffee seedling, experiment of three levels of super absorbent polymer (SAP), i.e. high SAP (SH), low SAP (SL) and no SAP (SN), and three levels of irrigation, i.e. high water (WH), middle water (WM) and low water (WL), was designed, and the effect of SAP and irrigation on physiology, growth, dry mass accumulation and water consumption of arabica coffee seedling was studied. Results showed that, compared with SN, SL increases chlorophyll (Chl), carotenoid and root activity by 11.8%, 13.4% and 52.2%, but reduces soluble sugar (SS), malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline(Pro) by 24.9%, 24.3% and 55.8%, and also increases total dry mass and water use efficiency (WUE) by 31.0% and 35.9%, respectively; however, SH reduces Chl, carotenoid, MDA and root activity by 3.1%, 2.4%, 13.5% and 6.3%, and reduces total dry mass by 21.3% as well, but increases SS, MDA and WUE by 3.7%, 75.1% and 8.6%. Compared to WL, WM increases total dry mass, water consumption and WUE by 89.8%, 44.5% and 33.2%, while WH increases total dry mass, water consumption and WUE by 172.8%, 104.8% and 34.0%. Compared to CK (SNWL), SLWM has the largest increase of WUE by 112.7%, and increases total dry mass by 158.9%, as well as leaf relative water content, Chl, carotenoid and root activity by 24.4%, 19.5%, 25.8% and 149.9%, whereas reduces SS, MDA and Pro by 38.3%, 36.4% and 68.7%. Considering high efficiency water saving, SLWM is the optimum experiment combination.