Effects of indol butyric acid concentration on propagation from cuttings of papaya cultivars ‘Golden’ and ‘Uenf/Caliman 01’

Abstract

Introduction. Papaya is one of the very few fruit crops multiplied by seed. Unfortunately, the use of seedlings hampers the preservation of favorable plant characteristics and delays the appearance of the first flowers. In addition, the polygamous nature of papaya imposes planting 3-4 seedlings per hole in order to be certain of obtaining the right sex type. These shortcomings can be circumvented by clonal multiplication. This work aimed to multiply selected papaya cultivars from cuttings using the rooting promoting auxin indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Materials and methods. Two experiments were conducted; the first one followed a completely randomized factorial design, with cultivars ’Golden’ and ‘Uenf/Caliman 01’ as levels of the first factor, and 0, 500, 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 ppm IBA as levels of the second factor. In this first trial, rooted cuttings of ‘Uenf/Caliman 01’ were taken to the field and compared to seedlings soon after planting and 4.5 months later. In the second experiment, IBA levels were increased aiming to enhance rooting percentage. Physiological assessments of rooted cuttings were also performed in this second experiment. Results and discussion. A concentration of 3,000 ppm IBA gave the best results for ‘Golden’, while lower concentration (1,500 ppm) seemed indicated for ‘Uenf/Caliman 01’. Rooting success in ‘Uenf/Caliman 01’ was improved by using cuttings obtained from beheaded mother plants. The analyses showed that a few roots were sufficient to maintain good water status and photosynthetic rate in new plantlets. Conclusion. Plants propagated from cuttings had early flowering and produced first fruits at a lower height than seedlings in the field.