Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Materials and Methods: Plant growth regulators (PGRs) were applied on papaya crop (var. CO 8) at 5^th and 7^th month after planting to investigate their influence on yield and postharvest fruit quality characters as well as shelf life. The PGRs (TIBA at 200 ppm, CPPU at 4 ppm, CCC at 500 ppm, MeJA at 100 pm, SA at 100 pm and BR at 0.5 ppm) used in the study were given as foliar sprays.

Results: The results revealed that exogenous application of growth regulators significantly decreased the days to flowering, days to first harvest and first bearing height. A significant reduction in the PRSV incidence of papaya was also observed with the application of MeJA and SA. Yield and yield attributes were improved by all sprayed PGRs, especially BR and TIBA increased the number of fruits/plant and fruit weight that resulted in higher yield. A positive increase in the fruit morphological and quality characters was also observed with the application of PGRs and resulted in higher shelf life.

Conclusion: The scientific results about the effects of pre-harvest application of growth regulators may contribute to improve papaya fruit yield with better quality, higher papain yield and reduced PRSV incidence.