Coffea arabica L. is cultivated in all Minas Gerais producing areas, with predominance of cv. Catuaí and cv. Mundo Novo, owing to their high plant vigor, yield and cup quality. This work aimed to evaluate the agronomic performance of coffee in the Epamig Experimental Farm, Três Pontas, MG, Brazil. The experiment used 39 progenies, in the fourth generation of selfing, after the second self-backcrossing of cvs Catuaí and Mundo Novo. (recurring progenitor) developed by Epamig coffee breeding program. The cultivars Catuaí Vermelho MG 99, Rubi MG 1192 and Acaiá Cerrado MG 1474 were used as control. The following parameters were evaluated: yield of eight harvests (1997/1998 to 2004/2005), vegetative vigor, floating grains percentage, and bean size. The results showed that there is genetic variability among the progenies studied. The seventh and eighth harvest produced the highest yields. Progenies 1189-9-80-1 and 1189-9-80-3 showed good performance for the evaluated characteristics and will be selected for future works of genetic breeding.
Coffee; breeding; yield; plant vigor
