Diversidade genética e seleção de progênies de cafeeiros do grupo “Big Coffee VL”

Abstract

The Coffee breeding has taken several ways, since the market has become more demanding, and among the coffee breeding aims are the increase the grain size. Obtaining coffee beans with high sieves gives an added value to the product, principally when it comes to specialty coffees production. Thus the aim with this study was to evaluate growth traits and production, to estimate the genetic diversity and selection, of Big Coffee VL (Coffea arabica) cultivated in UFLA, which, its main trait is larger fruits than common coffee. In 1989, in a coffee plantation (C. arabica), in Capitólio -MG, a different coffee plant was found, presenting larger leaves and fruits than those of common coffee trees and was named as “Big Coffee VL.” Subsequently, progenies from these coffee trees were grown in Piumhi-MG, and in 2012 seeds from these progenies were collected and installed the experiment at the Federal University of Lavras, marking the beginning of a breeding program to increase the grain size. We evaluated 100 Big Coffee VL progenies and the adopted design was lattice 10x10 with 23 replicates. The traits evaluated were productivity, pair numbers of plagiotropic branches, nodes number of plagiotropic branches, plant height, stem diameter and vegetative vigor. Based on these traits were carried out studies of genetic diversity, using multivariate statistical methods, and prediction of the breeding values of the progenies using mixed models. The existence of genetic diversity was found among progenies, as well as differences in agronomic performance, being possible the identification and selection of those promising in conducting the breeding program.