Emergence and stablishment of physic nut seedlings as a function of positions and sowing depths

Abstract

Considering the lack of search results related to physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) cultivation was carried out this work to study the position and sowing depth effects on the emergence and early growth of seedlings originated from seeds from different sources, a batch from Campina Grande, PB, and another coming from Uberlandia, MG. We conducted an experiment using a completely randomized design with four replications of 25 seeds arranged in a factorial 3 x 3 (positions and depths). The treatments consisted of different positions of the seeds in the soil: caruncule side up, forming an angle of 0 degrees in relation to an imaginary axis perpendicular to the ground; caruncule to the side, forming an angle of 90 degrees to the imaginary axis and caruncule face down, forming an angle of 180 degrees to the imaginary axis at depths of 2, 4 and 6 cm. In order to evaluate the effects of treatments were determinate percentage of emergence, emergence rate index, average time of emergence, plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves, leaf area and height/stem diameter ratio. The best way of sowing physic nut seeds is with the caruncule down at 4 mm depth.