Desenvolvimento inicial de cultivares tradicionais de Coffea Arabica L. no brejo paraibano.

Abstract

To meet the demand, several coffee producing regions (Coffea arabica L.) that have distinct edaphoclimatic conditions, are cultivars developed with specific characteristics. In Brejo da Paraíba, whose altitude is 618 m, coffee has potential for cultivation, however, there are few reports on the performance of cultivars that can be introduced in the region. Thus, the use of cultivars adapted as realities of the place of cultivation increases the chance of success in the development of coffee culture in the municipality and region. The objective of this work was to evaluate the initial seedling growth of six coffee cultivars in Areia-PB. The experiment was conducted between October 2019 and March 2020, in full sun in the seedling nursery of the Laboratory of Plant Ecology, located in the Department of Phytotechnics and Environmental Sciences, at the Center for Agricultural Sciences, at the Federal University of Paraíba. The design used was in completely randomized blocks, with 6 treatments (cultivars), and three replications, with 28 plants per plot. As cultivars used were: Bourbon; Catuaí Vermelho 144; Yellow Catuai 62; New world; Catucai 24/137 and Arara. It contains the seedling emergence percentage, the plant height, the color diameter and the number of leaf pairs. It was found that all cultivars are promising for the region, except for one Arara cultivar that presents inferiority in all studied variables and seedling emergence percentage 36.6% lower than the other cultivars. Bourbon and Mundo Novo independent cultivars showed better overall adaptation and showed higher growth than other cultivars at average plant height 180 days after sowing (21.33 cm), which may indicate adaptation to environmental conditions, such as thermal amplitude, and insulation. In general, these results help in decision making for the choice of cultivars to be produced under the conditions of cultivation of Brejo da Paraíba and guides for future research work.