The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) has been indicated as an alternative method for the evaluation of the nutritional status of plants, in substitution to the traditional criterium of interpretation of the critical levels of nutrients. In this study, it was tested the application of different DRIS methods (Jones, Elwali & Gascho, and Rathfon & Burger) in coffee crop data, grown in the Espírito Santo state, for three seasonal years. The calculation of the DRIS indices and the use of the F-test for the selection of the ratios between nutrients were tested during the diagnosis. The use of the F-test was shown to be a potential alternative, since it improves the capacity of discriminating nutritionally balanced plantations from the unbalanced. Even though there were differences among the DRIS indices, the diagnoses was consistent and adequate to differentiate crops according to their nutritional status. Additionally, the results suggest that the use of nitrogen fertilizers was adequate, since no nitrogen deficiency was detected. However, for P, Ca, B, and K, there were indications that their levels could be limiting the productivity of coffee.
Coffea canephora; nitrogen; phosphorous; potassium; nutrients; coffee plantations; DRIS
