For the experiment 13 year old pera sweet orange on rangpur lime stionic combinations from a plot in the Mogi-Guaçu county, São Paulo State, were choosen. All plants showed in January 1984, unilateral Brazilian decline (blight) symptoms. The diseased state of the plants was further confirmed by low water uptake. The statistically design was by completely randomized blocks, with 6 treatments, 4 replications and 1 tree per plot. The following growth regulator treatments were applied: 1) Check; 2) gibberellic acid (GA) at 100ppm + 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) at l0ppm; 3) GA at 50ppm + 2,4-D at 10ppm; 4) GA at 50ppm + NAA at 15ppm + biofertilizer at 1ml/lwater; 6) ethyl-5-chlorine 1 H-3-indazolyl acetate (ethilclozate) at 0,1ml/l water. The products were applied in January 85. The growth regulators were applied as foliar sprays to thoroughly wet the leaves. Five evaluation on the plant reactions were undertaken, respectively at 100,193,276,346 and 405 days from the first application of the products. The results obtained based on a visual score and Kruskal-Wallis test showed that treatments with GA at 50ppm + NAA at 20ppm, GA at 100ppm + 2,4-D at 10ppm, and GA at 50ppm+NAA at 15ppm+ bifertilizer at 1ml/lwater, presented satisfactory degree of symptoms remission that differed statistically from the check. This amelioration however found no parallelism to the results obtained by the water uptake test that still showed low levels. Those figures however were a little higher in the treated plants than in the checks. These experiments will be continued for a few more years to determine whether or not the symptoms remission in the foliage is permanent and will lead eventually to the improvement of the whole plant.
citrus; citrus blight; citrus sinensis; growth regulators