Evaluation of Jatropha curcas and Moringa oleifera Seedlings in Two Different Ecological Regions Cultivated on Different Distances

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Forestry and Timber Trees Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., A. R. C., Egypt.

2 Botanical Gardens Dept., Hort. Res. Inst., A. R. C., Egypt

Abstract

Jatropha curcas L., a multipurpose shrub, planting in a marginal soil, it has gained lot of importance for the production of biodiesel. Moringa oleifera Lam., is a highly valued plant, it has an impressive range of medicinal uses with high nutritional value. The field experiment was carried out at Ismailia and Alexandria governorates, at east and west of Egypt, respectively. Jatropha and Moringa were cultivated from May 2013 to October 2015 under different ecological regions and two plant spacing (0.5m*0.5m and 1.0m*1.0m), to evaluate the productivity.  The results revealed that there was high significant different of the most of growth parameters of Jatropha and Moringa shrubs in Ismailia region as compared with Alexandria region. It was clear that, the amount of fruits, seeds and oil yield (kg ha-1) of Moringa were increased in 2015 as compared with 2014. Jatropha started to give fruits at 2015 in the both two regions, but it did not give fruits with wide spacing in Alexandria. The results also revealed that the highest values of fruits, seeds and oil yield were 2111, 621 and 82 kg ha-1, respectively for Moringa with 0.5m* 0.5m spacing in Ismailia region. While, the lowest values of fruits, seeds and oil yield were 552, 142 and 13 kg ha-1, respectively for Moringa with 1.0m*1.0m spacing in Alexandria. Also, the highest values of fruits and seeds yield were 191 and 105 kg ha-1, respectively of Jatropha in Ismailia, while the highest value of squeeze oil percentage was 17.23% for jatropha with narrow spacing in Alexandria followed by Ismailia region.  It could be concluded that Ismailia region more suitable for planting Jatropha and Moringa especially with narrow spacing to give the highest amount of fruits, seeds and oil yield, but Alexandria region gave the highest oil percentage with Jatropha under narrow spacing.     

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