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Abstract
Calcium (Ca2+) is an important macronutrient in coffee and is involved in several physiological processes that influence crop growth, development, productivity, and stress response. This paper presents results from five experiments conducted on coffee under greenhouse and field conditions for over 5 years (2014–2018). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of Ca+2 application on coffee growth, development, abiotic stress response, cation uptake, leaf cell structure, and productivity. The results show that Ca+2 directly influences the growth and development of plants and has a strong effect on root growth. Drought stress and low Ca+2 rates of 8 mg.L−1 showed no differences in photosynthetic rates (PN) and biomass accumulation; high Ca+2 rates between 75 and 150 mg.L−1 increased PN and biomass accumulation in plants under drought stress, with a positive correlation between Ca+2 content in the leaves and PN with and without drought stress. High air temperature (>30°C) reduced PN rates, and the treatment with proper Ca+2 application showed better PN compared to the treatments with low Ca+2. Ca+2 application showed a synergistic effect with potassium (K+) uptake and no influence on the magnesium (Mg+2) uptake but a reduction in the leaf concentration with the increase in Ca+2 application. Additionally, coffee plants with proper Ca+2 application showed thicker leaves, denser epidermis, and larger, more compact, and better-structured palisade parenchyma compared with the plants treated with Ca+2 at lower rates. After 5 years, the mean coffee yield showed a polynomial response with respect to the doses of Ca+2 applied, with optimum rate of 120 kg CaO ha−1year−1 and a peak of Ca+2 uptake by the coffee cherries during 110–220 days after flowering.
Highlights
Coffee is the second-most-traded commodity around the world (Talbot, 2004)
The present study shows results from different research trials on coffee plants conducted under greenhouse and field conditions aiming to evaluate the influence of Ca+2 application on coffee plant growth, abiotic stress response, cation uptake, leaf cell structure, and coffee yields
The coffee plant responded to increasing Ca+2 application rates
Summary
Coffee is the second-most-traded commodity around the world (Talbot, 2004). The coffee crop provides livelihood to 20–25 million smallholder coffee farmers in 70 countries, and nearly 100 million people are involved in the production and processing of green coffee (Watts, 2016; Panhuysen and Pierrot, 2018). Calcium Nutrition in Coffee regions have been changing and that rising temperatures and altered rainfall patterns already affect coffee yields, quality, pests, and diseases (Bunn et al, 2015a,b; Craparo et al, 2015; PérezRendón et al, 2016; Pham et al, 2019), with a strong impact on the economic and social sustainability of coffee. The bean and beverage quality will lessen when mean air temperatures increase beyond that level, and reductions in water supply occur (Bertrand et al, 2012; Watts, 2016; DaMatta et al, 2019); which strongly impacts farmer’s income and the sustainability of the coffee crop, especially in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, and Ethiopia
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