Undesirable plants can harm the development of the crop of interest.
“Damage plants” or invasive plants, as they are also known, are plants that grow where they are unwanted and do more harm than good. Damage plants management becomes essential from an agronomic point of view, as these plants can compete for basic resources for the development of the crop of interest, such as water, light, nutrients and space for growth. They can also harm cultivated plants through allelopathy (release of substances that can be toxic) or because they are hosts to pests and diseases, causing a lot of damage.
In the coffee culture, it is common to find the following damage plants: Caruru (Amaranthus spp); Horseweed (Conyza spp); Black Picão (Bidens pilosa); Capim Amargoso (Digitaria insularis); Viola string (Ipomoea spp); Trapoeraba (Commelina benghalensis); Tyririca (Cyperus spp); among others.
There are some types of control for damage plants: cultural, mechanical, physical, biological and chemical control. The most used control is chemical, however, we currently find several damage plants resistant to the action mechanism of some of the main herbicides available on the market.
An alternative that has been used is the use of green cover, which consists of planting brachiaria or legumes between the rows of the coffee tree. In addition to curbing the growth of other damage plants, they also reduce the risk of soil erosion, increase organic matter and soil nutrient availability, and reduce thermal amplitude.
