Abstract
Accepted 24th May, 2017
Expansion of biofuel cultivation and production has become an urgent issue in the case of depending on disposed sewage secondary treated water in irrigation, so it was necessary to focus on the soil management before planting to maximize plant growth and access to production quickly is needed. Therefore, this study was carried out on a loamy sandy soil at Suez Governorate on Jatropha curcas trees planted three years ago. Two types of amendments were applied regarding to organic and inorganic; farm yard manure, FYM (5 and 10 ton/fed.) and elemental sulfur (0.15 and 0.30 ton/fed) in addition to the untreated soil (control). This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of organic and inorganic amendments on some growth characters and chemical constituents of Jatropha curcas plants.
The results revealed that the Jatropha trees received 10 ton/fed FYM gave greatest values of most of the characters over the other treatment (5 ton/fed). These characters were plant height, total hull weight, flower diameter and (N, P and K %). The effects of both doses were nearly equal on total seed weight, total hull length and total hull diameter. Moreover, the effect of sulfur treatments on Jatropha tree was superior at 0.30 ton/fed overcome the control on total seed weight, total hull weight, flower diameter, oil and K contents. The Jatropha trees received FYM exhibited increment values in most studied characters more than those with Sulfur as on plant height, total seed weight, total hull weight, hull diameter, seed index, N and P contents. The comparison among the impact of the studied amendments on the main economical Jatropha plant characters revealed that FYM was superior in case of seed index, and content of N and P in leaves. Whereas sulfur had a promotive effect on the leaf K and oil content in seeds.
Keywords: Farm yard manure, jatropha tree, calcareous soil,