Influence of coffee substrate (sludge) on the physicochemical characteristics of a yellow latosol

Abstract

Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world, Brazil being one of its largest
consumers, producers and exporters. In the process of coffee production, several residues are
produced, such as pulp, bark, residual water and in the process of extracting coffee beverage,
coffee grounds (Cruz et al., 2014, apud Cruz, 2015), which are difficult to exploit due to the lack
of knowledge about their potentialities. The lack of coffee grounds, as well as other materials
that are ignored by society, has been little studied, however, the search for materials that do
not have a negative impact on the planet facilitates and encourages research on the properties
and applications of these materials that are commonly discarded as solid waste. Thus, we aim
to verify the influence of coffee grounds on the physical-chemical characteristics of soil near the area of vegetable cultivation through the analysis of humidity and pH. The study was carried
out in the soil and water laboratory of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology
of Piauí (IFPI), located in the municipality of Corrente, Piauí, where the experiments
were carried out from the sampling of cerrado soil removed in the nearby area To the crop of
vegetables, the depth of 15-20 cm, in the village of Calumbi, in the interior of the municipality,
and of coffee grounds, collected in residences. The study verified that, in the humidity, higher
values were presented in all the samples that contained coffee grounds and that there is no
variance of pH between the treatments, presenting acids. Thus, coffee grounds showed to be
efficient in soil water retention, although it does not alter pH, allowing its use to optimize the soil
for cultivar varieties or to recover degraded soils, for example.