Desenvolvimento de mudas de cafeeiro cultivadas em tubetes e submetidas a diferentes níveis de déficit hídrico / Development of coffee seedlings cultivated in plastic tubes and submitted at different levels of hydric deficit

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2007

RESUMO

Coffee production is a very important activity in the socioeconomic context in Brazil, which makes billion of dollars go around the economy every year generating thousands of direct and indirect jobs. The success in the coffee production depends on the observation of several needs, among others the choice of healthy and vigorous seedlings with good genetic potential. The use of sacks of polyethylene as a container for the substrate in the production of coffee seedlings is traditional, nevertheless are losing space for the plastic tubes. Despite some advantages of plastic tubes like the possibility of mechanization of filling and planting, the reuse of the containers and the smaller number of employees demanded in the production, the plastic tubes need substrate with special characteristics. In the production of coffee seedlings in plastic tubes is necessary the use of irrigation of high efficiency, as well as appropriate manipulation. There are reports in the literature showing a lack of suitability of the irrigation methods in the production of coffee seedlings in plastic tubes. The use of inadequate irrigation methods can cause problems in the culture development, due to hydric deficiency, excessive moisture, or for fostering the appearance and propagation of diseases. On the basis of these aspects, the objective of this work was to generate information to guide the producers in an appropriate handling of the sub-irrigation in the coffee seedling production in plastic tubes, determining the involved implications in the use of that method. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse in an experimental area of the Irrigation and Drainage Section of the Rural Engineering Department of the Superior School of Agriculture "Luiz de Queiroz" – ESALQ/USP, in the city of Piracicaba, São Paulo State. The seedlings used in the experiment were coffee plants of the species Coffea arabica cv. Catuaí Vermelho, variety LCH-2077-2-5-99. The irrigation method used was by subirrigation. The irrigation control was done according to the weight variation of the plastic tubes with the seedlings, due to the loss of water by evapotranspiration. In the control process of the weights were used load cells, which monitored the weight variation of a group of plastic tubes, denominated control group. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with four replications. The evaluated treatments had five levels of depletion of the maximum capacity of water retention (MCRA) presented by the substrate (15%, 30%, 45%, 60% and 75% of the MCRA). The plots were constituted of 32 plastic tubes. To quantify the effects of the treatments were monthly measured the following characteristics of the seedlings: Height of the orthopic brach, diameter of the orthopic branch, leaf area, as well as the values of dry matter of the aerial part and radicular system. The handling of sub-irrigation by lysimeter was technically viable for the production of coffee seedlings in plastic tubes. The automatic system for handling the irrigation was adequate to monitor and control it. The levels of depletion above 45% limited the development of seedlings, however the depletion of 27% was considered ideal.

ASSUNTO(S)

cultivo em tubete handling irrigation irrigação – manejo mudas café lysimeter instrumento de medida

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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