Highlights
► Heavy bearing is a typical phenomenon on coffee, and leads to branch dieback and a strong biennial bearing pattern. ► Dieback increased with decreasing leaf-to-fruit ratio and was not closely related to changes of carbohydrates and minerals. ► No compensatory increase in photosynthetic rates was found with decreasing leaf-to-fruit ratio. ► Branch dieback was unrelated to differences in photosynthetic rates, carbon isotope composition or oxidative stress.