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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-724
Jatropha
Jatropha curcas
Jatropha is a fast-growing shrub whose seeds are pressed for an oil used as a diesel substitute, and cuttings planted straight into the ground root readily enough to form a stock-proof living fence within a season. Its seed, oil and leaves are all poisonous to eat raw, containing compounds that killed calves fed even small amounts, though industrial detoxification can turn the pressed meal into a usable livestock feed. Global plantations sold on biodiesel promises through the 2000s mostly failed commercially, since the yields that justify growing it need real rainfall and fair soil rather than the marginal ground it was usually planted on.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 9–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 5–8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 15.1–20 ft
- Mature spread
- 10–15 ft
- Plant spacing
- 6.6–8.2 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Ashe Juniper
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Atemoya
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Bael
Aegle marmelos
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Banana
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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