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Due to the socioeconomic importance of papaya in northeast, area in which natural water contain high levels of salts, especially in its semi-arid region, the emergence and growth of two varieties of papaya seedlings irrigated with saline water was evaluated. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse of Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), Campus Pombal, PB, during the period from May to July of 2011, using a randomized block design, with treatments distributed in factorial scheme 4 x 2, consisting of four levels of water salinity (1.2, 2.4, 3.6, 4.8 dS m(-1)) and two cultivars of papaya (Sunrise Solo and Tainung-1) with three replications, totaling twenty four plots. The emergence, growth and dry matter accumulation of seedlings was evaluated. The increasing salinity of irrigation water, even applied with a leaching fraction of 20%, increased the salt content in substrate above the threshold salinity of the crop, promoting reductions in the emergence, growth and dry matter accumulation, being the variety Tainung-1 more sensitive.