The appropriate management of leaf diseases, such as rust and cercospora of the coffee plant, has become extremely important to the production of good quality coffee. In this context, the knowledge of technical procedures and phytosanitary products become extremely important, as well as the effect caused by them in the coffee quality. The objective of this work was to verify the influence of different methods of controlling fungal diseases in coffee plant on the grain quality of parchment and floater coffee. Trials were carried out in 2002/2003 and 2003/2004. The experimental design was the randomized complete block design subdivided into plots, using four replications, in a 2 x 3 x 2 factorial structure, involving two harvests, three fungicide treatments (Ópera®systemic fungicide, Cobox® cupric fungicide, and non-treated control), and two kinds of processing, parchment and floaters. The evaluation of the quality of the grains was performed through chemical analyses: titrable acidity, pH, leaching of potassium, and electrical conductivity. The results showed that the fungicide treatments just affect the leaching of potassium in floater coffee, in which Cobox® presented superior effect. In both processing methods studied the second year presented better electrical conductivity and better leaching of potassium in floater coffee. In the first year the parchment coffee presented superior effect for the titrable acidity.
Coffea arabica L.; quality; management
