Abstract
ABSTRACT: The goal of this study was to analyze the response of Arabica coffee cultivars grown under three levels of Bidens pilosa (beggarticks) interference. At 30 days after transplanting (DAT) of 14 Arabica coffee cultivars into 11 L pots, beggarticks was seeded in the pots and soon after emergence, three levels of weed infestation were established: none, low (two plants per pot), and high (five plants per pot). Treatments were arranged in a 14 × 3 factorial scheme under a completely randomized design, with four replicates. Coffee plant growth was evaluated at both weed emergence and blossoming (90 DAT) when the experiment was completed. Regardless beggarticks infestation levels, significant effects of cultivars occurred on almost all the coffee growth variables. Specifically, the Arabica coffee cultivars Arara, Asa Branca, and Bourbon Amarelo exhibited greater values for root, leaf, shoot, and whole plant dry matter when compared with the other cultivars. The Arabica coffee cultivars presented lower leaf area increments, and also lower leaf, shoot, and whole plant dry matter accumulation when grown under either low or high infestation levels (between which there were no statistical differences, p>0.05) in comparison with that under the weed-free treatment. However, there were no significant interactions between Arabica coffee cultivars and weed infestation levels for those crop growth variables. We conclude that all Arabica coffee cultivars tested were equally susceptible to B. pilosa competition in this phase of crop implantation.
Highlights
Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer, with an estimated harvest of 58 million bags in 2018, 76.3% of which was Coffea arabica (Conab, 2018)
Soon after transplanting in the field, the coffee plants are highly susceptible to weed competition (Ronchi and Silva, 2006; Ronchi et al, 2007; Fialho et al, 2010), and this is a critical period for competition
Regardless of the cultivar seedling submitted to B. pilosa competition from emergence to flowering of the weed, compared with that of the null competition treatment, lower values were verified (p0.05; Table 2)
Summary
Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer, with an estimated harvest of 58 million bags in 2018, 76.3% of which was Coffea arabica (Conab, 2018). Soon after transplanting in the field, the coffee plants are highly susceptible to weed competition (Ronchi and Silva, 2006; Ronchi et al, 2007; Fialho et al, 2010), and this is a critical period for competition. It is worth noting that most of the root system of the coffee plant is concentrated in the soil close to the stem and up to 0.30 m deep (Ronchi et al, 2015). This indicates that the occurrence of weeds in the planting row following coffee transplantion to the field is undesirable and harmful to coffee plants because weeds increase competition. Weed management in newly planted crops is an important activity within the coffee production system
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