poster - International Conference of Agricultural Engineering

Table 3 – Analysis of variance for average sieve and type of Catuaí coffee bean (flat or peaberry),
cultivated in different population arrangements (PA), with or without irrigation, in 2008/2009 harvest, in
Mococa – SP.
Cycles
2008/2009 2009/2010
Average Type of bean Average Type of bean
Population
arrangements (m)
sieve Flat Peaberry sieve Flat Peaberry
E1 18.4 66.6 ab 16.5 16.9 77.9 abc 8.5 ab
E2 18.2 63.4 b 18.9 16.8 74.5 bc 11.0 a
E3 18.1 63.8 ab 17.7 16.7 73.9 c 11.0 a
E4 18.1 68.7 ab 16.9 16.8 80.0 a 7.2 b
E5 18.2 69.8 a 15.6 16.8 79.9 ab 7.7 ab
E6 17.6 67.4 ab 16.9 16.7 76.9 abc 8.9 ab
F test – PA 2.47 ns 2.98* 0.78 0.19 ns 4.2* 4.4*
Irrigation With 18.8 a 67.6 12.3 b 16.8 76.0 b 9.3
Without 17.4 b 65.7 21.8 a 16.8 78.3 a 8.7
F test – I 99.7* 2.57 ns 83.5* 0.19 ns 5.2* 0.92 ns
Teste F - I x AP 0.65 ns 0.62 ns 1.21 ns 1.08 ns 0.40 ns 0.79 ns
CV % 2.72 6.28 21.1 1.47 4.66 24.2
General mean 18.1 66.6 17 16.8 77.2 9.0
** Significant at 1% of probability by Tukey test. * Significant at 5% of probability by Tukey test.. SAD = Significant
average deviation; CV = Coefficient of variation.
The amount of water available by precipitation, in the phase of grain formation, was higher
during cycle 2009/2010, with a rainfall of 886 mm, while in the previous cycle it rained 461
mm. The largest volume of water made available by the rains, certainly promoted a grain
filling of plants cultivated without irrigation similar to irrigated plants. To DaMatta & Ramalho
(2006) water deficit in the pellet-like berries (October-December) delays fruit growth,
resulting in smaller sieve. The good water supply provides better conditions for plant growth,
reflecting a greater capacity for grain filling, obtaining a higher grain formation, because the
water is directly involved in cell expansion and also the transport of assimilates from leaves
to fruits, causing an increase of the grains. There was no effect of the interaction between
irrigation and population arrangement in the average sieve in both years.
The type of flat bean was significantly altered by the arrangement of population (p> 0.05) in
both crop cycles. In general, the plants cultivated in a 1.60 m between the rows had lower
values than the flat bean plants cultivated in a 3.20 m (Table 3). The use of drip irrigation in
2008/2009 cycle was not significant for flat bean, in contrast to the cycle 2009/2010, when
there was a significant effect (p> 0.05) of the use of irrigation on flat type grain. There was no
effect of irrigation, or the interaction of irrigation and population arrangement on the formation
of flat bean.
Peaberry bean was not influenced by the population arrangement in the cycle 2008/2009
(Table 3). The percentage of peaberry beans in the population arrangements is above the
acceptable values for exports (12%), and may be related to the adverse environmental
effects, such as the high temperature during flowering. Pezzopane et al. (2007) verified that
an average air temperature close to 24ºC provided high productivity of peaberry beans,
which affected the quality of beans. In the experiment, flowering occurred at 25º C during
September/October, as illustrated in Figure 1. In the cycle 2009/2010 the population
arrangement provided effect significantly in the peaberry bean, with less percentage in
treatment E4 when compared with treatment E2 and E3.
In the cycle 2008/2009 the coffee irrigated showed the production of peaberry beans was
very close to the accepted values for exports (Table 3), and differed significantly (p> 0.01)
from the non-irrigated group, which presented great amounts of peaberry beans (21.8%). As
previously stated, the production of peaberries is partially related to adverse environmental
factors, mainly in the flowering and fruiting. In the cycle 2009/2010 the irrigation and the
interaction of irrigation and population arrangement did not provide significant effect in the