Growth and Quality of Papaya ‘Golden THB’ Seedlings Cultivated under Different Irrigation Depths

The obtainment of seedlings is one of the main stages of the papaya crop and good irrigation management provides proper water status, contributing to higher quality seedlings. Thus, this work had as objective to evaluate the growth and quality of Papaya 'Golden THB' seedlings submitted to different irrigation depths. The study was carried out at the Federal Institute of Espírito Santo, Campus Itapina, located in Colatina, Northwest region of the State of Espírito Santo, Brazil, during the period from May 16 to July 19, 2018. The experimental design was completely randomized with six treatments composed of 25 plants each, totaling 150 seedlings in the experiment. The treatments consisted in the application of six daily irrigation depths, corresponding to 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 mm. At 65 days after planting, the seedlings were evaluated for morphological characteristics: length of the root system, leaf area, plant height, stem diameter, dry mass of the aerial part, dry mass of the root system, total dry mass and Dickson quality index. Irrigation depths interfered in the growth and quality of papaya 'Golden THB' seedlings during their production period. The recommended irrigation depth for the production of papaya 'Golden THB' seedlings with high quality is 8.15 mm d-1, which showed a higher Dickson quality index and good responses in all the morphological characteristics studied.