The objective of this work was to study the effects of gibberelin and cytokinin on breaking apical dominance and axillary buds growth of the Carica papaya L. Papaya plants sprayed three times within a period of 7 days, with the following treatments: T1- water (control), T2- GA3 250 mg L-1, T3- GA3 500 mg L-1, T4- benzyladenine (BA) 250 mg L-1, T5- BA 500 mg L-1, T6- GA3 125 mg L-1 + BA 125 mg L-1, T7- GA3 250 mg L-1 + BA 250 mg L-1. The treatments were carried out with or without removal of the apical buds. After 36 days of the last plant growth regulators application was observed lateral bud numbers, lateral buds length and lateral buds diameter. The results showed that there were a higher number of shoots in plants treated with GA3 at 125 mg L-1 + BA at 125 mg L-1 and GA3 at 250mg L-1 + BA at 250 mg L-1. The removal of the apical bud helped the sprouting of the papaya plants.
papaya; gibberellins; cytokinin; axillary buds; vegetative propagation
