Tropical fruit hormone charts
Ten hormone classes for 13 crops at flowering, fruit set and ripening: the five classic hormones plus jasmonates, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, polyamines and strigolactones. Every cell says whether it was measured, inferred, only tested as a spray, or has no study yet, so nothing is hidden.
Through the growth cycle
Change crop with the Crop button in the top bar; every tab follows it. Dashed marks are inferred from the fruit type, not measured in that crop. "Applied" means the hormone was only tested as a spray or dip.
Compare all 13 crops at one stageSee which crops share the same hormone pattern. Tap to open.
For each hormone, crops are grouped by what happens at this stage. Dashed names are inferred, not measured in that crop. Tap a crop to open it above.
Regulators
Growers boost or block hormones with sprays, drenches and storage treatments. Each card follows the chain from product to hormone to what you see on the tree or fruit, and says how strong the evidence is.
Boosters and blockersWhich products raise or block each hormone, and its natural opponent. Tap to open.
For each hormone: products that boost it, products that block it, and the plant hormone that naturally works against it.
- GibberellinBoost: GA₃ sprays (fruit set, delaying flowering, slowing peel ageing)Block: paclobutrazol, uniconazole, prohexadione-calcium stop its production (forcing flowering, curbing flush)Natural opponent: ABA (rest and flowering vs growth)
- EthyleneBoost: ethephon, ethylene gas (pineapple forcing, ripening, degreening)Block: 1-MCP stops the plant sensing it; AVG stops its production; permanganate absorbs it from the air (shelf life, less drop)Natural opponent: auxin (keeps young fruit attached)
- AuxinBoost: NAA, 2,4-D, 4-CPA (less fruit drop, bigger fruit)Block: no commercial blocker (TIBA is research only)Natural opponent: ethylene (lowers auxin flow and causes drop); cytokinin (side-bud growth)
- CytokininBoost: CPPU, 6-BA (fruit set and size); KNO₃ acts partly through cytokininBlock: no commercial blockerNatural opponent: auxin at the shoot tip
- ABABoost: S-ABA (peel colour); water stress and girdling raise itBlock: no commercial blocker (fluridone is research only)Natural opponent: gibberellin (growth vs rest)
- OthersBoost: MeJA, salicylic acid, brassinolide, putrescine, melatonin (colour, chilling and browning control, fruit set)Block: no commercial blockersNatural opponent: salicylic acid and jasmonates often oppose each other; polyamines compete with ethylene for the same building block
Block is a product that stops the plant making or sensing a hormone. Natural opponent is another of the plant's own hormones with the opposite effect; where no blocker exists, growers shift the balance through it.
Cause and effect for your crop
How long regulators stay in soil
Longest-lasting first. Times are approximate: about five soil half-lives, when roughly 97% has broken down. Real times vary with soil type, temperature, moisture and repeated use. Tap a product for measured orchard residues and effects.
Ripening
Climacteric fruits (mango, durian, papaya, passion fruit, avocado) show an ethylene peak after harvest. Non-climacteric fruits such as rambutan stay low.
Ethylene production: all crops compared
One row per crop. Hollow dot: ethylene at harvest. Filled mark: the ripening peak (a bar is a reported range; two marks mean two sources). The dashed arrow shows the rise. µL ethylene per kg of fruit per hour, log scale; each gridline is 10 times the last. Tap a crop for every measurement and its source.
Flowering
How each hormone changes in buds, leaves and shoots before flowering, for the crop you choose. Measured-value charts appear for crops that have them; units differ between studies, so each chart keeps its own scale.
Mango leaf, girdled vs control
ng/g fresh mass, LC-MS/MS, log scale. Alphonso, one month after girdling. Girdled rows in the source table were scrambled, so treat ranges as approximate.
Longan shoot tips after KClO₃
ng/g dry weight, LC-ESI-MS, read from the abstract. Gibberellins from treated trees; cytokinins from untreated trees.
Mango: change with paclobutrazol (PBZ)
Percent change, mostly PBZ-treated vs untreated Alphonso trees (Burondkar 2016, from search snippets). The two "untreated" rows compare dates within control trees.
Fruit set
Before young fruit drop, ABA, ACC and ethylene climb. Few absolute fruit-set levels exist for these crops, so the chart shows fold changes.
Fold change: all crops with data
Times higher, log scale from 1× (no change). Colour shows how the value was checked.