Nymet Holdings Inc. (fka NYMH)

[Pennimon]

Jatropha Study with Clemson worthless....read this post by a Jatropha farmer from Corpus Cristi Texas. Its not rocket science and its already being grown. You can order either the plants or seeds from USA suppliers. Nice read. - P.

Re: Comprehensive Biodiesel Guide site up
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so far, my own story is too simple as i've just gotten into this as well.

I am growing jatropha curcas, a plant native to central america, the northern part of south america, and the southern part of north america. it was exported sometime in the 1500's to india where currently they are using it apparantly as the key to the future, having planted over 2.2 million hectares of it. mostly small farmers, alongside the many railroads they have as well.

I bought one plant ($42 + shipping = $60), from the Cactus Jungle in Berkeley, Ca, the owner (Hap) sent me two. one sort of looked diseased. I cut it very close to the bottom and planted both anyhow, after tilling up a spot and removing all weeds from it, Jatropha is not very hardy and will get choked out unless you give it a good start with no competition.

from those 2 plants, (i ran out of patience) and made a few cuttings, now i have 7 saplings (you can cut off a good sized stem just like a rose bush, plant it, and it will grow).

then I found a site called echonet.org and they have seeds for sale. $4 a pack and i've been getting 11-13 seeds from each pack. I bought 15 packs ($60 again with the shipping) and planted 24 seeds from 2 packs. I still have 13 packs to go but ran out of decent sized planters to put them in. So I've 31 growing so far (will have to see what the germination rate is on the seeds, reportedly about 75%). as soon as they are about knee high (and once my friend the mechanic fixes my tiller), I will have about 35% of my back yard tilled, de-weeded, and prepared with adding a few sacks of miracle grow potting soil and transfer all of the saplings there.

I'll be using those and perhaps a few more, I've figured I can plant about 55 or 66 saplings in my back yard, as a seed stock for my orchards. Im a texas vet and looking for land near corpus christi, in any of these counties, nueces, aransas, san patricio, jim wells, and kenedy.

those are all close by enough for me to get out a couple times per week after transplanting. I've found land anywhere from $2000 to $100,000 per acre, but all of that which I've found at the cheaper end I can never get in touch with the realtor or owner.

the tree itself, will grow in horrid conditions, bad soil, rocky, sandy, just about anywhere, but must be grown where the temperature does NOT drop below 32 degrees, they are not frost tolerant (although ag professionals are working on that I've found both at TAMU, texas a&m uni, and the university of florida).

I've spoken with a Dr. Miller at TAMU, and a few others trying to determine how much Bio-diesel I can produce from an acre and it goes something like this.

optimum planting is 2m X 2m totalling about 1000 trees per acre, perhaps a couple hundred more depending on your easements and such.

estimates are anywhere from 240 to over 1000 gallons per acre per harvest, harvesting is possible 2 or perhaps 3 times per year, depending on rain, soil condition, etc.

Harvesting is done by hand, although you can use one of those shakers they use on apple trees. Pick the fruit, remove the seeds, the fruit is toxic so can be tossed back onto the land to decompose as fertilizer.

Dry the seeds, (there are a few ways to do this, I just read about one and have to research more) and press with a hydrolic press, filter while pressing would probably be easiest. the oil obtain can then go straight into the tank of a diesel engine. there are some that say the oil should be heated (usually in the vehicle somehow) and can be used directly as fuel then. nothing to add or mix.

the seed cake left over again can be returned to the orchard as fertilizer.

there are many uses for jatropha, wax, 2 colors of dye, a few medicinal properties. the seeds can be boiled and added to goat meat, and supposedly mosquitoes will not dwell very close to them. (bonus for texas). for all of its uses, Im just in it for the diesel.

its my estimation that the price of diesel will be approx. $7-8 per gallon by the time I'm into full production. its 4.69 per gallon now, and you can harvest from 2 year old trees. 50 acres is the max I will be operating from, though 30 seems more feasible.

harvesting labor will be my second highest expense (after purchasing the land), but labor in this part of the country, especially seasonal (2-3 months) is easy, quick and cheap.

I am estimating approximately $240,000 per year with average rainfall, decent soil, on 30 acres. before labor, elec, digging a well and everything else. who knows? maybe i'll find a grant to go along with it. the federal govt. should have plenty of grant money available as long as you make some data available to them.

if it works close to the way i've figured it. I'll quit my job in about 18 months, rest for 9, work for 3 on the harvest and keep that up till i retire.

(you can copy and use that if you wish for your site)

Clint

South Texas Jatropha Farms

BTW - Clemson sells a biodiesel kit and has published many things on alternative fuels not much to mention in the way of Jatropha although they work with many other plants.


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