Viabilidade técnica e econômica do cafeeiro fertirrigado com diferentes concentrações de fósforo

Abstract

Many studies show coffee crop as a responsive plant when high doses of phosphorus (P) are applied, contradicting the current fertilization recommendation. Therefore, this study aim was to evaluate technically and economically the application of doses of phosphorus with different irrigation depths in a soil that already has high level of fertility. Arabica coffee variety TopázioMG-1190 was planted in January 2010 and the treatments variation started in November 2011. The first harvest was 2012 following by other two in 2013 and 2014. The experimental design was random blocks in factorial 5x4x4. The five irrigation depths used were based on (Ki) fraction of irrigation requirement (0.4, 0.7, 1.0, 1.3 and 1.6), the four levels of phosphorus applied were (0, 80, 240 and 720 kg ha-1 of P2O5), and four replicates were used. The treatments using lower irrigation depth and phosphorus doses showed to be enough to supply crop demand. Doses of 240 kg ha-1 associated with fractions higher than 0.7 were economically infeasible, showing that in soils already containing high levels of phosphorus, the coffee crop does not respond to supplemental application of this element.