This work aimed to evaluate nutrient accumulation in young coffee plants and weeds cultivated in competition during 90 days. Mundo Novo coffee seedlings at the stage of four to five pairs of fully-expanded leaves were transplanted into pots with 25 dm-³ of substrate. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design, in a factorial scheme (4 x 4), with four replications. The treatments were constituted of four weed species: Digitaria horizontalis, Brachiaria decumbens, Brachiaria plantaginea, and Mucuna aterrina, at four infestation densities (zero, two, four, and six plants per pot), in coexistence with one coffee plant, during 90 days. To determine the foliar nutrient content, leaves were collected from the median part of the coffee plants and of the weeds. When in coexistence with the coffee plants, all the weeds provided a lower nutrient content in the leaves of the culture, mainly with increased plant density, except for the N concentration in the leaves of the coffee plants that coexisted with M. aterrina. The nutrient contents in the leaves of the weeds differed according to the species, indicating differentiated capacity of nutrient recycling. The weeds presented higher content of some nutrients, as follows: D. horizontalis in P and Fe; B. plantaginea in P, Mg, Mn, Zn and M. aterrina in N, Ca and Zn, regardless of infestation density.
Coffea arabica; competition; mineral nutrition; Mucuna aterrima
