Exogenous application of gibberellic acid on lateral bud emergence in pineapple propagated through stem cuttings

Abstract

The effects of gibberellic acid (GA3) on lateral bud emergence in pineapple stem is still not known. Hence, this study was conducted. ‘MD2’ pineapple stems were sectioned into vertical halves. The first half served as the control (untreated). Whereas the other halves were soaked in 500 ppm GA3 for 2 hrs. The study was performed in two trials. Results in both trials show that untreated stem sections produced lateral buds after one week. In contrast, the GA3 treatment prevented the development of buds. In trial 1, only 2 out of 18 stem sections (11.11%) soaked in 500 ppm of GA3 produced buds after one week. In trial 2, GA3-treated stem sections failed to produce buds. The average number of buds emergence per stem section and diameter of lateral buds were consistently better in untreated pineapple stem sections. These findings implied that the exogenous application of GA3 could prevent the emergence of lateral buds in the pineapple stem.