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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The importance of pruning cannot be emphasized enough in this title



Dear followers of Project Jatropha,

I feel that pruning is so important, that it merits its own blog post-which should say something. Jatropha flowers are borne on leaf axils of new growth . For this reason ,optimum new growth should be induced with aggressive pruning ,especially in the first two years . So, in order to maximize the seed yield , Labland Biotechs has taught the farmers to aggressively prune the Jatropha seedlings at specific times. Aggressive pruning entails cutting off the young blossoms and sometimes stems so that the plant branches out more, which will ultimately lead to (exponentially) more fruit being produced. This is critical, since Project Jatropha wants to maximize the economic viability of growing Jatropha; otherwise, the project will not succeed. I also feel that an example would better illustrate the multiple uses of pruning. Parivarthana decided to do an experiment of sorts with 5 of the plants from the Phase I farmers-they got permission to use them, don't worry. What they did was grow the plants using all of the agronomic practices taught at Labland Biotechs, and then prune the plants. Then, the cuttings were planted, grown using the agronomic methods taught by Labland, and rinse and repeat the process for 8 months. From the 5 original seedlings, 35 plants were obtained (including the originals). That's pretty remarkable. This example highlights the other use of pruning, which is to create more Jatropha seedlings.

Sincerely,
Adarsha

3 comments:

  1. Hi Adarsha,

    Great new outlook for the blogspot. But what happened to your cool name supreme overlord Dude?? My son is frowning at me for writing dude because I am 49+!!
    The photos look great. I am sorry we could not go to the project site as we all took turns in falling sick. However, I heard the news of Project Jatropha all the way from Malavalli.
    In addition to Jatropha, people here are also talking about Hongae, Pongamia. Can you write a blog post of which one is better. Your project site pictures look wonderful.

    Subbanna

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  2. On my own experience I find that a high water supply induces the branching on young plants: seven to twelve secondary branches without prune; I think the early use of citokinins also contributes.

    INES BAZAN / Tecomán, Colima. MEXICO

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  3. hello Adarsha,Callie and Apoorva. Greetings from Northern Colombia where we work in several Jatropha projects. We are in agree with the pruning for branches stimulate. But we are also agree with Jose Ines methods for enhance branches. Regards
    OCTAVIO TORRES
    ambyagroltd@yahoo.co.uk

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