The flowering in citrus trees, as well as in other fruit trees, is one of the decisive factors for the production. The inhibition possibility or reduction of the normal flowering and alteration of the production season for the 'Tahiti' acid lime is a primordial factor to determine it economical profitability. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of gibberellic acid on blooming, number of formed flowers of the 'Tahiti ' acid lime in the conditions of the state of São Paulo, Brazil looking for to inhibit its normal blooming and to quantify the effect of this inhibition on the out-of-season production. The experimental design was of random blocks (5 blocks) with three plants for each treatment. One plant was used as margin between the treatments and a row of plants among the blocks. The treatments consisted of control, 20, 40 and 80 mg/L of gibberellic acid (GA3) + 10 ml/L of adhesive sulfactant and the pH of the used water was 6,2. The plants were treated with gibberellic acid during the winter (dry season) after 50 days without irrigation in the first year and after 60 days in the second year.. The gibberellic acid reduced the number of formed flowers (-81%) and increased the production of out-of-season fruits (+59,77% or +16,04 kg/pl).
citrus; flowering; GA3; Tahiti; gibberellic acid
