Short comunication zinc supplementation, production and quality of coffee beans

Abstract

Besides its importance in the coffee tree nutrition, there is almost no information relating zinc nutrition and bean quality. This work evaluatedthe effect of zinc on the coffee yield and bean quality. The experiment wasconducted with Coffea arabica L. in "Zona da Mata" region, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Twelve plots were established at random with 4 competitive plants each. Treatments included plants supplemented with zinc (eight plots) and control without zinc supplementation (four plots). Plants were subjected to twotreatments: zinc supplementation and control. Yield, number of defective beans, beans attacked by berry borers, bean size, cup quality, beans zinc concentration, potassium leaching, electrical conductivity, color index, totaltritable acidity, pH, chlorogenic acids contents and ferric-reducing antioxidant activity of beans were evaluated. Zinc positively affected quality ofcoffee beans, which presented lower percentage of medium and small beans, lower berry borer incidence, lower potassium leaching and electrical conductivity, higher contents of zinc and chlorogenic acids and higher antioxidantactivity in comparison with control beans.