Physiological and biochemical characteristics of two coffee cultivars of early and late ripening stages / CaracterÃsticas FisiolÃgicas e BioquÃmicas de Frutos de Duas Cultivares de Cafà de Ciclos de MaturaÃÃo Precoce e Tardio

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The asynchronous ripening of coffee fruits plays an important role on coffee production and it leads to higher costs, harvest difficulties and to a low quality beverage. This study aimed at to assess two coffee cultivars with distinct fruit ripening patterns: Catucaà 785-15, which shows an early fruit ripening process and AcauÃ, which is known by its late fruit ripening. The coffee trees used to realize this experiment are localized at the Experimental Farm of the Procafe Foundation, in Varginha-MG where the fruits were harvested, within a period of about 30 days between each harvesting, from January to June/2008. The experiment was plotted in a entirely randomly design, on a factorial arrangement. In order to follow the vegetative development, internodes counting was performed and to assess the fruit development, the moisture and flesh and dry matterâ weights of the 100 fruits were taken. The ethylene production post harvest was also analyzed as well as the respiration rate which was obtained from the CO2 released within an hour, period which 16 fruits were kept in 50 mL tubes hermetically closed. The ethylene samples were evaluated by gas chromatography and the CO2 was measured by a CO2 electronic analyzer. It was also analyzed, using a colorimeter, the percentage of green, yellow, red, dark-red and dry fruits in each harvest. The results were submitted to a variance analysis (ANOVA) and the regression test was performed. The Catucaà 785-15 cultivar had a better vegetative and fruit development compared to the Acauà cultivar which at 184 DAF had 24% of fruits on a green coloration, while Catucaà 785-15 showed only 13% of its fruits on this color stage, demonstrating the earliness of this cultivar, whose 89% of fruits in the cherry stage were found at 214 DAF. The cherry stage was also characterized by an increase in the respiration rate and on the ethylene production pattern of the Catucaà 785-15 cultivar, what may indicate an ethylene dependent ripening process.

ASSUNTO(S)

coffea arabica development ripening maturaÃÃo ethylene respiration coffea arabica fisiologia de plantas cultivadas desenvolvimento respiraÃÃo etileno frutos climatÃricos fruits climateric

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