Interferência de plantas daninhas no crescimento e nutrição de plantas jovens de Coffea arabica L

• Autor(a) principal: Fialho, Cíntia Maria Teixeira
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: LOCUS Repositório Institucional da UFV
• Texto Completo: http://locus.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4522
• topic: Café arábica; Competição; Manejo integrado; Nutrição mineral; Sustentabilidade; Coffea arabica; Competition; Integrated management; Mineral nutrition; Sustainability; CNPQ::CIENCIAS AGRARIAS::AGRONOMIA

The average national yield of coffee is low, in spite of the large area occupied by this culture in Brazil. Among several other reasons for that, the effect of weeds deserves especial attention. They compete for water, light and food resources. The initial growth stage of coffee plants is considered one of the most sensitive stages to weed effects, mainly in the culture line. However, when crops are maintained free from any weeds during the whole cycle, the soil becomes unprotected. In recent years, aiming at a higher sustainability of the coffee sector, integrated systems of weed management have been developed. In these systems, some species of weeds have been cultivated between the lines of coffee with the purpose of promoting soil coverage and nutrient recycling. The present work aimed at evaluating the effects of weeds on the growth and nutrition of young plants of Coffea arabica L. For such, three experiments were carried out in a greenhouse. In the first experiment, four species of weeds were evaluated: Brachiaria decumbens, Digitaria horizontalis, Brachairia plantginea and Mucuna aterrima, in four densities (zero, two, four and six plants per vase), in competition with coffee plants. The planting of weed species was performed 60 days after the transplanting of the coffee plants and they remained in the same vase for 90 days. M. aterrima and B. plantginea were the species that most affected the coffee growth. A negative relation was observed between the density of weeds and the growth variables of coffee plants and between root mass and root system/aerial part ratios. In the second experiment, the nutrient leaf contents in the coffee plants and in the competing weed species were evaluated. All the weed species provided a lower content of macro and micronutrients on the leaves of the coffee plants, mainly with the increase in the density of the plants. An exception was observed for the N concentrations in theleaves of the coffee plant which was together with M. aterrima. The nutrient contents in the leaves of the weeds varied according to the species, indicating the different capacity of competition and nutrients. In the third experiment, the effects of Brachiaria decumbens and Brachiaria plantginea on the growth of coffee plants was evaluated at 60 and 180 days after transplanting (DAT). The effects of the grasses on the growth of the coffee plants was higher at 60 DAT, in comparison to the coffee plants at 180 DAT. The effects of the competition on the growth variables were similar among the weeds, when cultivated at 60 DAT. However, when the competition was installed later (180 DAT), B. plantginea was the most competitive species. The increase in the density of weeds promoted higher allocation of photoassimilates for theaerial part of the coffee plant, to the detriment of the root system.