O presente estudo foi executado com o objetivo de pesquisar a possibilidade de aumentar a produtividade de cafèzais velhos, sem emprêgo de matéria orgânica trazida de fora. Foram estudados N, P, K, micronutrientes (zinco, cobre e boro) e adubação verde. Utilizou-se um delineamento fatorial 3² X 2², em blocos de 18 canteiros com nove plantas cada um, com bordadura de uma planta entre os canteiros. O ensaio foi instalado na Estação Experimental de Ribeirão Prêto, em um cafèzal com mais de 40 anos de idade, em terra-roxa-legítima, e cuja produção média nos quatro anos anteriores foi de 24 sacos de café em côco por mil pés. Obteve-se grande aumento de produção com o emprêgo de nitrogênio, devido não só às quantidades aplicados, mais elevadas do que as até então recomendadas, mas principalmente à sua aplicação parcelada. Os aumentos devidos ao nitrogênio na dose de 360 g de N por planta, na forma de sulfato de amônio, corresponderam a 6, 11, 13, 16 e 34 sacos de café em côco por mil pés, nos anos de 1954 a 1958. A dose mínima de potássio empregada foi de 120 g de K(2)0 por planta. A dose de 240 g de K(2)0 por planta ainda proporcionou um aumento de produção de 9% em relação à anterior. Não houve reação ao fósforo nem à adubação verde. A aplicação de micronutrientes (zinco, boro e cobre) fêz desaparecer os sintomas de deficiência de zinco, mas resultou em decréscimo significativo da produção. A aplicação do nitrogênio melhorou a coloração e o desenvolvimento da folhagem. Não houve influência dos outros fatôres sôbre o aspecto vegetativo das plantas.

It has been believed in Brazil that it is not possible to maintain coffee plantings profitably without the use of organic matter. Consequently it has been routine to recommend yearly applications of manure or compost. The present experiment was carried out to study the possibility of increasing the yield of a coffee planting and maintaining it at a high level by the exclusive use of mineral fertilizers. A coffee plantation of the "Bourbon vermelho" variety about 40 years old grown on "terra-roxa-legítima" soil was used. A factorial experiment 3² X 2² was installed in 1953 with 9 plants per plot. The treatments used were: ammonium sulphate 0 g, 600 g and 1800 g per plant, superphosphate 0 g, 500 g and 1500 g per plant and potassium chloride 200 g, 400 g and 800 g per plant, microelements (Zn, Bo, Cu) and green manure. Until 1957 the phosphate and the chloride were applied in furrows once a year and the ammonium sulphate was applied three times a year as top dressings. Starting in 1958 all the fertilizers were applied four times a year as top dressings. The microelements were applied as foliage spray of the following solution: zinc sulphate - 6 g, copper sulphate - 1 g and borax - 3 g per liter of water. Soybean was used as green manure until 1955 and jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis, D. C.) in the later years. The response to nitrogen application was highly significant and kept increasing every year as shown by the percentage of yield increases for the years 1954 through 1958. These were 8.4%, 60.7%, 30.9%, 50.3% and 63.1%. In previous experiments doses of KCI of up to 200 g per tree had already been used. For that reason in this experiment the minimum dose of that fertilizer used was 200 g per tree. An application of 8OO g per tree of KCI gave only 9% of yield increase in relation to the 200 g per tree application. No reaction was obtained to the application of phosphorus. The microelement spray cured the zinc deficiency symptoms which were evident prior to its application, but decreased the yield significantly, the highest decrease being 39% in 1955. No reaction was obtained to the use of green manure. The results obtained seem to show that it is possible to increase substantially the yield of a coffee plantation through the use of mineral fertilizers only.

Um conjunto de 30 plantas matrizes de Bourbon Amarelo foi selecionado em 1945, em Jaú, na propriedade "Fazendinha". As progênies dêsses cafeeiros foram plantadas nas Estações Experimentais do Instituto Agronômico em Campinas, Ribeirão Preto, Pindorama, Mococa e Jaú, em linhas de 20 plantas. Diversas observações foram feitas relativas ao desenvolvimento dos cafeeiros, produção e tipos de sementes. De maneira geral o desenvolvimento foi considerado muito bom, com exceção de Mococa, onde as plantas apresentaram porte e produção menores devido ao terreno mais pobre onde foram plantadas. Embora tenha havido variações acentuadas no comportamento das progênies quanto à produção, verificou-se que as de n. J 30, J 3, J 8, J 10, J 11 e J 24 classificaram-se como as melhores nas cinco localidades, ao fim de oito anos seguidos de produção. As melhores plantas das boas progênies já foram incluídas em campos de aumento e suas sementes vêm sendo distribuídas aos lavradores. Notou-se acentuada variação de produção anual do conjunto de progênies, principalmente a partir do quarto ano de colheita. As produções bienais cresceram até o terceiro biênio, estacionando ou diminuindo no quarto. Notou-se que algumas progénies são tardias na produção, de modo que não será aconselhável a seleção precoce de progênies de Bourbon Amarelo eliminando-se as menos produtivas logo após o primeiro biênio de produção. Verificou-se, também, que as plantas de maior produção total pertencem, em grande parte, a progênies que apresentam produção média geral elevada, as quais, por sua vez, possuem variabilidade menor de produção. A curva de distribuição da produção total das plantas individuais mostrou-se variável.nas diferentes localidades; em tôdas verificou-se a ocorrência de plantas muito pouco produtivas, com produções médias inferiores à média geral subtraída de 2,57 vezes o desvio padrão geral do lote. A ocorrência desse tipo de plantas é de 1,7% no Bourbon Amarelo, inferior à que se encontra no café Mundo Novo. Os dados referentes às porcentagens de sementes dos tipos moca e concha indicaram que não há excesso de sementes anormais. As sementes moca mostraram-se mais freqüentes em Ribeirão Prêto, e menos em Pindorama e Campinas. As sementes concha são mais freqüentes em Campinas e Pindorama, e menos em Ribeirão Prêto. Quanto à distribuição das porcentagens de sementes concha, notou-se maior variação em Campinas e Pindorama. Com relação à ocorrência da anomalia constituída por frutos com lojas desenvolvidas e sem sementes, verificou-se que é pouco freqüente no café Bourbon Amarelo e da mesma intensidade que a verificada em outras variedades comerciais, como Bourbon Vermelho e Caturra. A ocorrência de plantas com frutos alaranjados, heterozigotas para os alelos Xcxc, indicou que devem ser freqüentes os cruzamentos naturais no cafezal onde as plantas matrizes foram selecionadas, pois embora o número de plantas de frutos vermelhos (XcXc) no local fôsse de freqüência reduzida em relação às plantas de frutos amarelos (xcxc), a ocorrência média de plantas heterozigotas entre os descendentes foi de 2,46%. Devido às características apresentadas por êsse grupo de progênies analisadas, tais como vigor vegetativo, alta produção e bom rendimento, confirma-se ser o Bourbon Amarelo uma variedade de café de bastante importância econômica, devendo suas seleções ser cultivadas em larga escala.

Little is known about the origin of Yellow Bourbon coffee (Coffea arabica cv. Bourbon Amarelo), one of the most promising coffee varieties. It probably originated in the neighbourhood of Pederneiras, S. P. (Brazil), either as a mutation of Bourbon coffee (red fruits), or as a recombinant from an eventual natural hybridization between this variety and Amarelo de Botucatu (yellow fruits when ripe), which is a natural mutation of typica (C. arabica L. var. typica Cramer). In order to develop new strains of this variety, 30 outstanding mother trees were chosen in 1945, in a private plantation located in Jaú, S. P. These trees were selected mainly on the basis of their vigor, plant type and apparent yield at selection time. To secure vegetative propagation branches were taken from each selected mother tree and then grafted in Campinas. Open-pollinated seeds from each tree were planted at five experiment stations of the State of São Paulo, namely, Campinas, Ribeirão Prêto, Pindorama, Mococa, Jaú. These locations show differences in soil type, and slight dissimilarities in climatic conditions. Campinas is located in the "Terra roxa-misturada" soil type, Ribeirão Prêto and Jaú on "Terra-roxa" soil, Mococa on "Massapé", and Pindorama on "Arenito Bauru" soil. At the beginning of the rainy season of 1946 the seedlings were transplanted to the field. In each location 20 plants from each mother tree were grown in lines, without replications, with a single individual tree per "hill". Individual records were taken for the first 8 years of crop (1949-56). During two or three years nearly all plants were sampled in order to determine the percentages of normal, "moca" (peaberry) and "concha" (elephant) seeds, grade of normal beans, incidence of empty fruit locules, and, in Campinas only, the ratio between weight of ripe fruits and the weight of dry seeds from these fruits (out-turn), and the weight of a thousand normal beans. From tables 1, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 which summarize the annual yields of each progeny in five locations, it appears that the most promising progenies are those derived from mother trees J 30, J 3, J 8, J 10, J 11 and J 24. High yielding progenies tend to show less variability from year to year than lower yielding-groups. Outstanding trees among the highest yielding progenies have already been included in seed production plots, and their seeds are being released to farmers for the establishment of new plantations. All progenies presented growing yields, up to the fourth crop, after which a clear biennial bearing cycle took place. Total yields per biennium increased as a rule from the first to the sixth crop, decreasing slightly in the las two years (1955-56). It was noticed that Yellow Bourbon progenies as a rule are not so consistent in keeping their initial yield ranking, from the first four to the sixth or eighth crops, as it was shown to occur in the closely related Red Bourbon variety. This indicates that if the lowest yielding progenies were discarded on the basis of th'e first two years of crop, some late high yielding progenies would have been lost for selection at a later period. Six or eight consecutive crops may already give an indication of the best progenies and of the individual trees which are probably among those to be selected for their high yields. Out of the 30-highest yielding trees in Campinas, 70 per cent belong to progenies ranked among the first ten on the basis of progeny mean yields. In Ribeirão Preto, Pindorama, Mococa and Jaú these figures were 90, 73, 60 and 80 per cent, respectively. This seems to indicate that under these circunstances selection should rather be based on the average yields of progenies. Considering altogether the five groups of progenies in the different experiment stations, an average was found of less than 2 per cent of individual trees presenting reduced total yields, that is, less than x - 2,57 s. The study of seed samples revealed that the highest percentage of "moca" seed is that from Ribeirão Prêto and the lowest one those from Campinas and Pindorama. These two locations, however, presented the highest percentages of "concha", while in Ribeirão Prêto the incidence of this abnormality was the lowest. Tables 20 and 21 summarize the characteristics of the distributions of these individual percentages of "moca" and "concha" seeds. All plants were examined for the presence of empty fruit locules. The incidence of this abnormality is low, as it is normally found in commercial varieties such as Red Bourbon and Caturra. Out of 2,930 plants belonging to 30 progenies grown in five' locations, 82 or 2.57c had fruits of a light red colour, being heterozygotes Xcxc. These plants resulted, as expected, from natural cross-pollination in the original plot where the seeds of mother trees were collected. If taken as a measure of the amount of cross-pollination this percentage may be considered as relatively high, because few plants with red fruits (XcXc) were noticed in the original plot of Yellow Bourbon. From these studies it may be concluded that due to their excellent agronomic characteristics the new strains of Yellow Bourbon coffee will have an outstanding place among the commercial varieties for the Brazilian coffee areas.

No plantio de um cafezal em terra de derrubada recente usa-se plantar as sementes no fundo das covas abertas com 15 a 30 cm. Em terras já anteriormente cultivadas, o emprêgo de mudas é indicado, julgando-se oportuno também o plantio profundo nas covas. A fim de verificar qual a melhor profundidade de plantio foram feitos três ensaios, nos quais se observaram as quantidades de falhas ocorridas e as produções dos cafeeiros. Notou-se que em Campinas a ocorrência de falhas foi a mesma nas diferentes profundidades de plantio, enquanto em Mococa foi maior para o plantio ao nível do solo. Quanto à produção, analisada durante os 4 a 6 primeiros anos, notou-se que as colheitas aumentaram à medida que as mudas foram plantadas a menores profundidades. A maior produção ocorreu no plantio ao nível do solo, em dois dos ensaios analisados. No ensaio instalado na Estação Experimental de Mococa observou-se pequena diferença entre o plantio na superfície e a 10 cm abaixo. Embora os resultados apresentados sejam de caráter preliminar, o bom desenvolvimento vegetativo e as melhores produções, além da facilidade de trabalho de plantio, aconselham o emprego da plantação das mudas ao nível do solo ou a 10 cm de profundidade, nas regiões estudadas.

The establishment of coffee plantation in new deforested lands is usually made sowing about 20 seeds very deep in the holes and protecting with wood the lateral and upper sides of the holes in order to secure to the germinating seeds an environment similar to that found in nurseries. In land already cultivated with other crops the coffee plantation is established using seedlings developed in nursery. At our conditions four individual seedlings are planted in each hole. It is usually believed that these one year old seedlings must also be planted 20 to 30 cm below soil surface in the same way as the seeds are planted in new land. There are however indications that the seedlings can be planted only a few centimeters below the soil surface or at the soil level, saving a great deal of time in the preparation of the hole. In order to study the effects of depth of planting on the development and yield of the coffee plants, three experimental trials were planted in three coffee regions of the State of S. Paulo, using three to four different depths of planting. Seedling failures were the same for the depths of 0, 10, 20, and 30 cm in the trials from Campinas and higher at soil level in Mococa. The yields for the period of four consecutive years increased as the seedlings were planted at lower depth at the three localities. The highest yield was observed when seedlings were planted at soil level or at 10 cm depth. For clay soils (where the trials were established) it can be stated that seedlings may advantageously be planted at soil level. Other experiments will indicate which will be the best depth of planting for the coffee seedlings in sand soil, since it is a common practice in this type of soil to plant seedlings very deep in the hole.

Realizaram-se contagens de frutos novos de café logo após o florescimento, em novembro, e de frutos completamente desenvolvidos, em fevereiro do ano seguinte, a fim de calcular as porcentagens de "pegamento" dos frutos, em alguns canteiros de um. ensaio de adubação, que haviam recebido combinações de adubo mineral e orgânico. As determinações foram feitas para as posições alta, média e inferior de cada planta, e o resultado médio foi correlacionado com os elementos usados na adubação e também com a produção das plantas. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que o fósforo, combinado com o estêrco, contribuiu para aumentar 3,5% à porcentagem de pegamento em relação à adubação sòmente com estêrco, e que o potássio também contribuiu com um aumento de 8,1% em relação às plantas que não receberam êste elemento. O pegamento dos frutos na. parte superior das plantas mostrou-se maior do que nas partes média e inferior. Verificou-se, ainda, que a porcentagem de pegamento geral, a qual é de cerca de 50%, é independente da produtividade das plantas.

Determinations of fruit setting were made in a fertilizer trial that is being carried out at the Estação Experimental de Ribeirão Prêto. This experiment is a factorial 2(4) with four replications, the basic treatments being 10 kg of "estêrco" (e), 0.2 kg of ammonium sulphate (n), 0.2 kg of bone meal (p) and 0.1 kg of potassium chloride (k). Fruits were counted in November of 1953 and 1954, soon after flowering, and also in February of the following years, when the fruits were already well developed. By fruit setting it is meant the ratio between fruit numbers in November and February, although counting was made at 15-day intervals between these two dates. In 1953/54 the percentage of fruit setting was determined for one plant in each of the four replications of treatments e, en, ep and ek. One plant in each replication of treatments np, en, enk and enpk was studied in 1954/55. For each plant in both seasons, six flowering branches were used, two at the higher part of the coffee plant, two at the base and two in intermediate positions. From the results obtained it is concluded that chemical fertilizers may contribute significantly to increase the percentage of fruit setting. Together with "estêrco" (stable manure), phosphorus showed a 3.5 per cent increase over "estêrco" alone. Comparing treatments with and without potash an increase of 8.1 per cent was found for plots receiving this fertilizer in 1954/55. It is also concluded that significant differences were observed in fruit setting at different levels of the plant, in favor of the higher branches. Fruit setting showed no correlation with total yield of ripened fruits.