Formation of Seedlings of Coffea canephora Pierre ex Froehner and Weed Control Under Application of Herbicides Oxyfluorfen and Pendimethalin

One of the most relevant factors for the formation of coffee crops is to use quality seedlings. However, the competition of weeds for nutrients and water from the soil can negatively affect your obtaining. Thus, the control of weeds in nursery is often dependent on the use of herbicides, considering that the manual activity is costly. In this way, this work aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of weed control and the effects on the development of clonal seedlings of coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex Froehner) by application of herbicides oxyfluorfen and pendimenthalin in nursery conditions. The experiment was conducted under a completely randomized design in factorial scheme 2 × 5, two herbicides- Pendimethalin and Oxifluorfen in five doses- corresponding to 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 L.ha-1 of commercial products. Was evaluated during the experiment the emergence of weeds and to end (140 days), were evaluated- seedling Height, stem diameter, leaf area, number of sheets, number of roots, root length, root volume, dry mass of roots and shoot dry matter. There was significant effect for seedling height, shoot dry matter and total dry mass, in which the pendimethalin caused damage to seedlings in comparison to oxyfluorfen. The use of the herbicides Pendimethalin and Oxyfluorfen obtained satisfactory control of weeds with application of 1080g and 648 g a.i. ha-1, respectively.