Selection of progeny from the cross between Icatu and Catuai cultivars

Breeding programs should be dynamic and continuous in order to provide new coffee cultivars with complex resistance factors to be efficient barriers to new physiological races of the fungus H. vastatrix. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic performance, the resistance to rust and the occurrence of brown eyespot in progenies derived from crosses between Catuaí and Icatu groups in two sites in the State of Minas Gerais. The experiments were carried out on EPAMIG Experimental Farms situated in São Sebastião do Paraíso and Três Pontas, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The experimental design was a 6 x 6 lattice square with three replications. The following characteristics were evaluated in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011crop years in both sites: yield, vegetative vigor, percentage of grain size and response to rust and brown eyespot. Performance of the evaluated progenies for productivity in Três Pontas was higher than in São Sebastião do Paraíso. The progeny 6-47-10 H Hole 3 stood out among the most promising, suggesting good potential for genetic progress in selection. Progenies with resistance to rust were classified.