Hi guys i am very new to this site and i am very new in this research (jatropha for bio-diesel) i need to find out how long it takes from the date of seed plantation to harvest your first yield for bioD production and quantities per hacter/ltr

if you're planting seeds. count on 2 years for first fruits to harvest. 3 years for a decent crop.

if you start from saplings, 18 months or less to first harvest, better harvest per year afterwards.

my suggestion, buy saplings instead of seeds, by year 3 you'll be selling both saplings for others who get interested, and seed for biodiesel.

Hi ccheek,  thanks for the info!

Quick question:  what kind of yields are you getting in your area?   (ie..lbs per acre, etc).

I've got about 25-30 acres in central TX (New Braunfels area), that we have used for years to just grow coastal hay for our cattle.  But it mostly lies dormant now, and I'd like to consider a biofuel crop for my own oil consumption.

Many thanks in advance for any info or advice you could provide.

SD

i dont have yields yet. Im still looking for land. i made an offer on 11 acres but havent heard back yet.

you're in New Braunfels? does the temp drop below freezing? if so? for how long? hours? days? weeks? from everything I've read, sub freezing temps for anything over say 4 hours and your plants are dead. so Jatropha Curcas wouldnt be the crop for you. I am conversing with Dr. Travis (TAMU) and they too are wondering just how far north JC can be planted and expected to survive. One of my brothers has acreage just north of Huntsville, I was considering sending him a sapling or two just to see how long they lived. But the more I think of it, the more I doubt anything north of San Antonio would live long. It could go 10-15 years but the first cold snap that breaks 32F and you'll be playing taps.

Perhaps with more cultivation they can be made more hardy to resist the cold? Im not a horticulturist so I really have no clue. Now, if you find someone to trade land here (corpus christi, aransas pass, ingleside, rockport, even mathis, orange grove, or further south into kenedy county), then I think you could make a huge trial at it and TAMU would go bonkers gathering data and all of that.

Im just appalled at the price of land around here. even out in san patricio county, (all sand). im not paying 10 grand per acre. if you know anyone between corpus and brownsville with land. I personally would bulldoze everything on it and plant JC (providing it was all just brush and mesquite or live oak anyhow, not commercial or residential land)

I also spent part of friday talking (email) with a few professors from TAMU (Texas A&M University) who have most of their experience in Central America. Best estimates are currently 180 gallons per harvest per year. sometimes you can get 2 or 3 harvest per year, but this is planting the trees on 3mX3m spacing. recommended is 2mX2m. I wish I could recall the links but I think most are from India so who knows how much is propaganda? that the average there, with good water is 1000 gallons per acre per harvest. i like to keep my estimates on the low side so Im going to figure 500-1000 gallons per acre per year.

I've just put in a bit on an 11 acre tract, man i hope they accept. I dont have much feedstock to start, and the guy i get JC from only has about 100 more to sell. so if i get the land, I'll be starting off with about 120 saplings, making cuttings and hopefully finish a full year with 1 acre. after that. these things grow so fast I'll have the entire 11 acres covered the second year with NO problem.

3 years from now diesel will be at say 7 or 8 bucks per gallon and i'll be processing 11,000 gallons with almost no labour costs (ya i  plan on working my donkey off)

77,000 per year isnt so bad in the US here, so far.... LOL... I'll still be looking to purchse 19 more acres or so. i think i can handle up to 50 alone.

we'll see.

happy farming all.

I'm in Houston, but our land is outside of New Braunfels.     It's not unusual for it to dip into the 20's at night during January and February.  But other than that it's pretty mild.     For non-freezing, the closer to the coast the better.  You'd think that further south would be better, but I've seen hard freezes in south Texas.    The area here around Houston would be ideal.

I'm working with some folks at Texas Farm Bureau to see what other oil-bearing crops are being grown right now in that hill country area around New Braunfels.

I'm not too familiar with the harvesting of jatropha, having only seen it being done by hand in India, South America, etc.  It looks pretty manual labor intensive.

well, i have a couple of recommendations for you, take with a grain of salt, i dont know how expensive it would be to do any of this.

if the temp dips that low, you'll need to be able to have something like a portable green house to cover as many trees as possible. then maybe some tiny type of heat production. just to keep the temps above freezing.

now i've also seen quite the interest in switchgrass. I've read up on it a little and lost interest pretty fast, I think mostly because its just grow and hack and sell. Im wanting to be a  bit more involved somehow, with the harvest, shelling, pressing, filtering, etc. plus i dont recall the figures on whether you get more oil per acre but i think only 1 or 2 other types of foilage (whether tree, shrub, grass or whatever), nets you more oil.

the JC is (reportedly) about 47% oil. (though I've read white papers saying up to 57%). I think with more research, careful selection of the hardiest and healthiest plants, that can get upwards of 72% oil. at least thats what I'll be shooting for, (and yes i know i've a LOT to learn on how to do such things).

I've thought of the algae thing too. it'd probably be great in corpus, (near the gulf, got a couple of HUGE bays too). i'll have to look into that more though. anyhow, if you do get something going in the houston area, you'll have the market from HE!! to sell to, thats for sure! everyone and their brother will be wanting biodiesel while we sit here and watch the prices keep skyrocketing.

oh yea, you can harvest them just like apple trees too, lay out a net, shake the @#$@ out of it and off to the next one. though I'll be a lot more selective the first few years, only picking the ripe and letting the rest develop further.

Yeah, temperature viability of the crop is an issue.   The ROI for these types of crops don't allow for much attentive maintenance like watering, freeze prevention, etc.   They pretty much have to be hardy and "on their own".

I did look at switchgrass because the harvesting of it is pretty much the same for hay (cutting, baling, etc).  But it's the process of converting it to fuels becomes difficult, ie... gasification for biodiesel, etc.   I'd rather go with a crop that processes like soybeans, jatropha, etc.  That type of process I can do on site.

im learning a lot more about biodiesel these days, I had NO CLUE they turn biodiesel into jet fuel. there are about 5 types, (i think) of jet fuel, add that to how many airlines have sold out, gone bankrupt or simply closed their doors in the past few months. (most of this from my very first issue of biodiesel magazine).

add again now that some airlines are charging you for the FIRST bag, carry on or stowed. plus i just read yesterday some major food production company is raising prices by 20% this year (due to transportation costs i would venture to guess).

whether or not exxon gets to drill in ANWAR or off the Gulf of Mexico more or whatever protected natural resource makes no difference, the price of NOTHING i can think of, in the past 30 years (except for that one guy who invested too heavily into silver) has gone down. and most of it is rising faster than normal.

 there is no big break coming in the price of anything, (forgive me for ranting here), its leading up to a point i hope. LOL

you know who the big 5 are. I think its coming soon that there will be a new big 5, whether the older guys, exxon, mobil, bp, are part of it depends on whether they start getting into alternative energies a LOT faster than they are. sure, 2 billion invested in testing is one thing.

i wish you all could see what i see here every day, enough land to plant over the 2.2 million hectares of JC that India just planted. for the metric impared thats 5.28 million acres, from the video i watched yesterday from the university of florida, they are expecting to be able to gather 620-1000 gallons per acre, you can harvest JC 2 times per year, 3 if you're lucky,

thats 10.5 million gallons of bio diesel per year just in this single area, makes me wonder how much land (whats it called, fallow? lying dormant. not being used for ANYTHING) is in south texas and south florida that could be planted.

I bet enough to start offering china and india biodiesel as a discount price from the ME and force the price per barrel of petroleum to plummet back to 1980's levels.

 DEAR LORD we need to elect some people, starting at the city council levels on up, that have a flippin clue.

$450,000 for a STUDY on expanding the current freeway from 4 to 6 lanes to determine whether it would save you 5 minutes in rush hour?

gimmie a fricken break!

i can tell you for $20 bucks whether it would or not.

/endrant

sorry guys, just had to blow off some steam, its friday, i still dont have land to plant my JC in except for my yard and my supplier is now down to 50 plants left, I found 2 in a local nursury i'll be picking up today.

woot!

Greetings from Runnels, County TEXAS (between San Angelo and Abilene).

I may be too far north, but I just bought a 500 seeds and will test a plot strip on my farm, along the south end of a berm about 4 feet high (having a passive solar heat gain) and somewhat protected by field cane on the north side.

I've been following the Jatropha for seveal weeks and decided to give this plant a try. I had planted a lot of pecan trees in 1997, the worst drought in my lifetime (and since the 1950s) hit in 1998 (we had 106 degrees on May 6, 1997) and only 4 inches of rain that year. Long story made short, I had kindling for sale not too long afterwards. I couldn't afford to keep my drip irrigation going day and night for fear of making my water well go dry. (My well is the only source for my house.)

The jatropha, being somewhat less water-intensive looks like a risk, however, I am advised it does not like a clay based soil. I am ammending the trench I will be planting my seeds in with rotted Coastal Bermuda and other organic matter to see if I can improve the soil.

If someone knows where I can purchase a small quantity of saplines, can you please contact me? I'd like to see if I can get them in for a Fall planting while I am getting the seeds into the ground.

I also MIGHT make a trip to Desert Center to the FBI Farm (FarmsBioDiesel) at Desert Center and pay them their $150 fee for a one day tour of their facilities to learn more. I'll try and post their website info if anybody is interested. Spoke to an informative employee there yesterday by the name of Mike Reardon, who was most helpful.

Best way to holler at me is through my website at www.TexasBirdWatcher.com. I probably won't be visiting this forum too often... (too many irons in the fire.)

Good luck,

Roy

ccheek:

I also spent part of friday talking (email) with a few professors from TAMU (Texas A&M University) who have most of their experience in Central America.

hey, if you have any more contact with these folks tell them about me trying a test plot on my protected berm. I am not certain if my experiment will work, nor if I will be able to get any decent polination in narrow plantings, but if they are ever in this "neck-of-the-woods" I can give them a nickle-tour if I get anything to grow.

I am still hoping to find a few seedlings to plant in addition to the seeds I bought today. A place in California can sell 100 seedlings at $5 each, but I don't want to spend that much right now for my experiment.

if you happen to drop by corpus christi for any reason in the next few weeks. I'll see you some seedlings at $5.00 each, I have 3 different varieties so you'll have a nice mix of pollination and perhaps develop a better strain out of them.

drop me a line

clcheek@yahoo.com

No trips in the forseable future down south, but thanks very much for the offer.

I'm hoping Texas A&M will develop a strain of Jatropha that is resistant to colder weather. If the Aggies can invent a purple carrot, a freeze hardy Jatropha should be easy.

One of the guys I've been corresponding with, a Patrick up in college station, says he has a strain of JC that is ok down to 16F. I've tried getting in touch with him, to swap one or two plants each. then i can graft and clone from there and produce an entire new strain with more fruit, higher oil content per seed, better frost tolerance, multiple harvests per year and faster growth with my new aeroponic system.

just havent heard back from in an a while.

just my luck.'

Please use link      www.farmingbiodiesel.com

My name is Michael Reardon; I am the Farming director and Founder of Farming biodiesel Inc located in Desert Center. We are the first USDA registered organic biodiesel fuel-stock farm in the United States.

By using various organic farming methods such as aquiponics we are mass planting Jatropha Curcus a non food grade fuel stock that’s seeds can be use for the production of B-100.

Here at Farming Biodiesel Inc we are committed to creating a renewable clean alternative to petro diesel. By reclaiming desert waste lands and turning them into profitable farms the effect is immediate on the local economy, by providing jobs, housing, and health insurance to over 1000 people per 1000 acres of farmland. Biodiesel can be mass produced and distributed at a cost of $3.75 per gallon

Utilizing green technologies as solar with the integrating of Fish, vegetable crop and live stock to make the farm virtually self sufficient with No carbon footprint.

A 20,000 acre Farm can produce 15,000.000 gallons of biodiesel per year for 40 Years before replanting.

I would like to invite you to the farm to see what we do

Clones have no main tap root will not handle cold at all

CC... did you ever get ahold of "Patrick" with the possible plants that withstand the slightly lower temps?

FBI...I may have to visit you out there.

no, Ive emailed and sent msgs through here. no reply. i keep searching on jatropha gossypyfolia (thats the one that's good down to 16F). I see lots of ads or links on google, yahoo, ask.com, even some local ones. but every one i've tried to contact has gone out of business, the email is return undeliverable, the phone has been disconnected.

so i've just kept planting my seeds in 8 inch planters, started building an aeroponics test bed (4 little containers that hold 12 plants each). i've toyed with the idea of building a greenhouse in my backyard. about 40 by 60 (luckily i've a big back yard). I have about 150 - 160 plants growing in planters, a few in the ground, and they are growing quite well. im trying out a new thing in the planters, half top soil and half sand, (i had been using miracle grow potting soil). so far, the germination rate has been VERY affected. I was enjoying 80% and higher in miracle grow.

now in the new soil mix, none of the seeds have germinated yet. so i think i'll have to stick to miracle grow and transplant after they germinate and get a little bigger, (say knee high). i pictured doing this on a bigger level, like 2 - 5 acres at the smallest. but land is so expensive. I'll keep looking though. I may have to go ahead with the greenhouse, since the Farmer's Almanac has predicted a colder than usual winter this year for south Texas.

I'd hate for all of those trees to croak due to a freeze.

Im in northeast FL (Jacksonville) and we typically only get a handful of days that reach or go below freezing. Every so often we get a hard freeze where it'll last 6-9hours. I plan on starting to hunt for land myself after labor day. I'm hoping to luck out with some people I know further in south/central FL.

I'd definately look into a greenhouse then. Atleast you could get a good start on getting all of your seeds and sapplings going. I'll take some time and check out that specific strain of Jatropha as well. Is there an oil content different between them?

As far as miracle grow, i was thinking of the same thing. I figured even on a larger scale dropping some of those MG food sticks into the ground around the plants root base and doing some research on production. I'm hoping to get my first order of seeds soon. I need to hunt down a source of decent sized sapplings as well (hopefully close by) as I have some research and experiments I want to carry out and see if they have an effect on production eventually.

hi Mike,

I've heard of startup after startup going on in south Florida, so you will probably be ok. the company i got a few seeds from there is called echonet.org. i bought 15 packs of seeds at 4 bucks each, with 12 seeds in each pack, after that, they put a strict limit of 5 packs per customer. so im getting them now from cary at lakebiofuels.com, hes in california.

i would recommend doing what im doing to lessen your time waiting for first harvest. buy the seeds now, and start planting in 8 or 10 inch planters. i get the 8's at walmart for 88 cents each. I have about 150. i also bought 80 at 6 inch. I though i'd get those when the venture capitalist said, ok plant as many as you can and we'll get started, so i'd have to transfer them to the land he provided quicker, but that was ok by me since i'd get started faster. (then he flaked).

also, with the 6 inch, thats the soil mix i tried of half top soil and half sand. so far 0 out of 38 seeds have germinated. I'll start replacing that with miracle grow probably tomorrow, this weekend at the latest.

I am not sure of the oil content from the seeds of jatropha gossypyfolia, i havent found any to check if they are smaller than JC or bigger or what. I do know JC is up to 47% oil. I havent pressed any to be sure of the content of mine, but both echonet and lakebiofuels claim around 40%.

also, check my other posts, you'll see i responded to a VERY good idea posted to me by froggy in Wisconsin. he mentioned weighing the seeds individually, and then planting, and tryin to find a pattern, such as, the seeds that weigh more, germinate at 90% or better, while the seeds that weigh less are not as good. or determining a minimum weight of the seeds to know which will germinate. i might go ahead and catalog that data, adding in color, general appearance and anythin else i can dream up like whether the little spot on the end is cracked or a different color or bulging or something.

what i wanted to do was, graft JC on to gossypyfolia, then you'd get the tree that can survive lower temps, with branches that supply bigger fruits, with bigger seeds and more oil. i'll let you know if i find gossypyfolia anywhere. I bet Florida has a better chance of having it, check with UF (university of Florida), I'd bet 20 bucks you can find some there, easy.

feel free to email me at clcheek@yahoo.com

i cant check that address from work, but i can check it afterwards in the late afternoon 430 or so and get back with you.