Avaliação da incidência de ferugem do cafeeiro em relação ao alinhamento de plantio

Coffee growing is of great social and economic importance both in Brazil and in the world, however several diseases harm this culture. Among these diseases, coffee rust caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix is considered to be one of the most harmful. Among the factors that interfere in the cycle of this disease, the environmental conditions, (which do not always manifest themselves uniformly throughout the entire length of the plant), present themselves as one of the most important, requiring reflections. In order to evaluate the incidence of coffee rust in relation to the thirds and sides of the plant, the present work was carried out on the Água Limpa farm in the municipality of Campos Altos (Minas Gerais). The experiment was carried out at field level in a coffee plantation (C. arabica. L.) Catuaí Amarelo IAC 62, 10 years old, implanted at a spacing of 3.6 mx 0.8 m, in a conventional system of management. The design used was completely randomized (DIC), following the scheme with four treatments (north face, south face, middle third and lower third) and 640 repetitions. Three evaluations were carried out, and each evaluation was carried out on the 640 plants marked on the homogeneous plot where the experiment was conducted. Each plant was evaluated on the third or fourth pair of leaves, on two branches in the lower third and two branches in the middle third, on both sides, (face facing north, and face facing south). Thus, 8 pairs of leaves were analyzed in each plant. In the analysis of each pair of leaves, the presence and absence of signs of the disease were evaluated, characterized as the presence of fungus structures in the plant (sporulation). After obtaining and processing the data, the following conclusion was reached: The lower third of the evaluated plants had a higher incidence of coffee rust (Hemileia vastatrix), compared to the average third in the initial phase of the epidemic. The exposure faces of the plant, facing south and north, did not present significant differences regarding the incidence of the disease. When analyzing the plant in general, the disease showed an upward progress curve, showing a greater number of infected plants for each evaluation performed.