Correlação entre crescimento e produtividade do cafeeiro em função do regime hídrico e densidade de plantio

Abstract

This study was carried out in an experimental area of the Universidade Federal de Lavras aiming to evaluate coffee plant growth and yield characteristics and study the correlation between coffee plant growth and yield as function of water supply regime and planting density. An experimental design with randomized blocks and split parcels with four replications was used. Three irrigation regimes were applied as treatment: (i) Irrigation whenever soil water tension approaches a value near 20kPa; (ii) Irrigation whenever soil water tension approaches a value near 60kPa; and a non irrigated control treatment. These three treatments were applied to three planting densities; (i) 2,500 plants ha-1 (4.0 m x 1.0 m), 10,000 plants ha-1 (2.0 m x 0.5 m) e 20,000 plants ha-1 (1.0 m x 0.5 m). Correlation among plant growth characteristics (plant height, steam diameter, and number of plagiotropic branches) and coffee bean production (liters per plant) and beneficed coffee bean yield (60kg bags ha -1) were estimated. Along the first two harvest period, plant height and yield showed the highest correlation value found. Only for the first harvest period, the number of plagiotropic branches per plant was positively correlated to yield. Coffee plants growing under higher planting density showed a better response to irrigation.