USO DO CALCÁRIO E DO GESSO AGRÍCOLA EM DUAS ÉPOCAS DE IMPLANTAÇÃO DO Coffea arabica L.

Brazil has a predominance of acidic soils and its correction is necessary to mitigate the effect of acidity on agricultural crops, especially coffee that is sensitive to pH and the amount of calcium in the soil. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding different doses of lime and gypsum and its effects on the agronomic characteristics of the coffee in two experiments with different growing season the deployment. The experimental design was in randomized blocks, with four repetitions in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, where the first factor was constituted by increasing doses of limestone and the second by increasing doses of gypsum. The first experiment was conducted in the winter - summer period and the second experiment in the spring - autumn period. The variables analyzed were plant height (AP), stem diameter (DC), leaf area index (IAF), leaf dry matter (MSF), root dry matter (MSR) and root length (CR). When analyzing the averages of the experiments, it was observed that in experiment I, the AP showed values higher than in experiment II, with an increase of 1.84 cm in this variable. For the other variables DC, IAF, MSF and MSR in experiment II, they reached a higher increment compared to experiment I in the order of 0.4 mm, 9.08 cm2, 1.54 g, 4.12 g respectively. The doses of limestone and gypsum did not provide changes in agronomic variables in both the periods evaluated during the period of six months after transplanting.