hi bionauts.

I have obtained jatropha curcas, and am looking for land to grow it on.

Im hoping to purchase around the aransas pass, corpus christi, rockport, ingleside or fulton areas. if anyone has any land for sale, or would just like a cutting to start your own little plantation, I'll make cuttings available.

Im building a seed cracker and press also, so im looking for ideas on filtration. I should have pure biodiesel (no need to mix or refine further) available in late sept, or early october.

just found 4.5 (roughly) acres of land for sale about 20 minutes from my house at a reasonable price (for this area), 20K. ya i know thats 5k per acre, but every realtor i've talked to in the past 3 months has quoted nothing less than 10K per acre unless you're willing to purchase 100 or more acres, then they will knock it down to 7-8k per acre. so im kind of excited. will be talking to the bank this afternoon, luckily (i hope) I've never used any of my VA benefits, and can obtain a small loan to purchase the land.

on a side note, one plant i thought had croaked, has sprung back to life, MAN these are hardy plants (jatropha curcas). There are new shoots and leaves on a sapling i though had bit the dust.

I cant wait to get started.

wow, very excited. went around  to the banks and such yesterday (took a half day off at work anyhow).

going this weekend to see the land i was hoping to buy, and its 4.75 acres. the price is the same, $20,000, about 20 - 30 minutes from my home and................

I've obtained financing. 85% for 20 years. its through a private seller so another $1000 off on the closing costs too. I've obtained the downpayment and this weekend I get to go see how much of it has to be cleared. from the intial report. there are just a few mesquite trees (will probably leave them for a while to provide shade to picnic under as i work weekends transplanting jatropha to the land.

man it feels great to actually get started. i'll be letting Texas A&M come and do measurements, surveys and tracking info on growth, production etc. whatever they may need as long as they dont interfere with production. time to get in touch with Hap in Berkely again to see the prices on a few bulk orders,

i dont suppose anyone has a contact to the non toxic variety? Im about to purchase between 50 and 500 saplings. would be great to start of non toxic if the yeild is the same or better.

I would be curious to follow your progress

as I am thinking of growing them also.

It appears that southern texas and florida

are about the only places in USA

that have non-freezing areas.

If you or others know of other areas non-freezing

would be apreciatted.

I did notice west texas has really cheap land

but think it probably gets some freeze there??

trabob

ive looked into west texas, specifically near el paso. I dont think you have to worry about the freezing there, my main concern was there are only tiny town's. blink twice and you've missed the town doing 70 down the highway.

i've looked on the Texas Veteran's Land board (where they have forfieted lands up for auction) and found 20 acres for $7000.   yes thats the right number of zero's there.

land is super cheap there and since jatropha only requires 10ml per year to survive, I kind of doubt they would produce much, unless you dug a well and watered them yourself. although i recall seeing storms come up that way on local weather a lot so i really dont know.

one thing is for sure, 10 acres there, and a supply of saplings (im checking with  my supplier to see what kind of price breaks i can get on

10 100  250 and 500 saplings at a time.

you wouldnt be sinking a lot of cash into it at the beginning.

might be worth a look...

i most recently found on craigslist, i think it was 20 acres north east of el paso for like 2999 per acre. check corpus christi craigslist and laredo or el paso craigslist under real estate for sale.

I have land, tropical land at that. I live in Sinaloa, Mexico and need seeds badly. At the moment I have commitments for access to, and use of, 10,000 hectares, but no seeds to plant in them. They are hard to come by down here. if you have an interest in growing jatropha on a large scale, respond to this and lets talk. Yeah, I know 10,000 hectares isn't large scale. But it's a start, from which many thousands of hectares more will become available.

Ted 

Ted would like to talk with you .Can provide the seedlings on a joint venture basis. contact ecofuel at Dsingh@ecoemergingenergies.com

 How are you going to harvest the seeds?  I understand it is a PITA and needs to be done by hand.  This works where you can have workers do it for $1 or less per day (India)

hey Ted.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,check this out

http://echobooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1609&osCsid=f9231331f57318b6abedaed470f2b629

i've been paying $49 per sapling and from the site i just listed above, they have packs of seeds, averages 6-10 seeds each for 4 bucks US. plus shipping.

if you've following my other posts. JC from seeds develop 2 root systems, a shallow and a deep. so i am going with seeds from now on. if a hurricane blows the tree down, there's a chance it will return with the deep root system.

The Chris:

 How are you going to harvest the seeds?  I understand it is a PITA and needs to be done by hand.  This works where you can have workers do it for $1 or less per day (India)

hi Chris,

well. so far I just plan on harvesting by hand. later on, I'll look into one of those apple harvestor attachements, I think they go on a backhoe. it shakes the tree enough to make the fruit drop, but not hard enough to damage the tree itself.

lay out some nets, shake it, a small boom to lift the corners, dump into a collector and haul it off when full.

but for now, hand picking will have to do.

I have land in Caldwell County TX that I am considering experimenting with jatropha production on and I am curious how you plan to deal with certain issues in your production.

First, I understand that jatropha is highly toxic.  If I have livestock on my property that ingest any of this plant either intentionally or accidentally, will it kill them?  Do I need to worrk about cattle escaping from my neighbors property eating some of this stuff and becoming sick or dying?  What do you intend to do with the remaining presscake after pressing?  If jatropha is so toxic, the presscake cannot be fed to animals, so what do you intend to use it for?  Compost?  I have heard about the possibility of a nontoxic variety of jatropha.  Does it truly exist? if so, does it have the same oil yield as the toxic variety?  What are the trade-offs in using it?

 Where do you plan to get planting seed/seedlings?

What sort of press do you plan to use?  The Chinese presses are getting very hard to find and cost upwards of $4k without an engine.  The european presses sold by http://agoilpress.com/ are nearly $5k for the very smallest one.  How do you plan to press affordably/efficiently?

 What soil preparation do you need to use, if any?  Irrigation?  Fetilizer?  Harvesting?

Perdurabo,

Caldwell county looks good, just slightly northeast of San Antonio right? I'll address your issues and hope I provide enough info for you to help you decide.

Animals arent going to eat the fruit. They know its toxic. One sniff and its No thank you Sir, I do not want another, or even one. In this regard, animals are much smarter than humans. ok, Say someone forces a fruit down one of your cow's throat's. yes, its going to get sick. if a HUMAN eats 3 seeds, reportedly, its enough to kill.

But, if you boil the seeds first, you can add them to goat meat to make some dish they use in central america so while the plant it toxic, it is also eaten, used to make brown and yellow dye, and soap, and the leaves (if i remember correctly) are boiled to help with indigestion in humans as well.

So, I would argue slightly the difference in the terms, HIGHLY toxic, and toxic, yes, small distinction as you have to do something to it first, (boiling).

 The seedcake (which you called presscake, put it in one of those weed and seed spreaders and put it back on your property, it makes an awesome fertilizer. Same deal with the left over fruits (you only want the seeds remember?)

I have checked with TAMU, the state of Florida and the nursury owner I got my first plants from in California, as far as any of them know, there is no non-toxic variety of jatropha, the entire genus is toxic.

I have 31 saplings at the moment and about 140 more seeds, I have room for approximately 65 trees in my back yard and will use them as my starters. I'll harvest their seeds and plant them in planters till they are about knee high (jatropha looses when planted in the wild amongst other weeds, so I'll give it a good head start and till the land first as well). Plus, you can take cuttings (just like a rose bush) and plant them as well.

It has been reported that Jatropha fairs well in natural habitat, fertilization and such actually hinder growth, not promote it. Im raising my saplings in miracle grow potting soil at the moment then just sticking them into a hole i dug in the back yard. they are doing well. I water them about every other day (they require only 10 ml of water to survive per year) thats about 3 thimble's full of water. They will shed their leaves in a draught, and start regrowing them when the rains return.

there is an item on the web to crack the seeds, the plans are $25 bucks, and those include the forms, you buy one bag of concrete and your seed cracker is done. (whether you hand crank it, or setup a tiny diesel engine (you're growing biodiesel remember) is strictly your choice.

you can spent $5k on a commercial press but I happen to know about 50 or more welders around here that can build me a 10 ton hydrolic press and all I have to do is keep a few 12 packs of beer on ice for a few weekends, maybe slow smoke a brisket and make a party of it.

filter the oil as it is pressed, and store or pack it in whatever you're going to use and viola! you're done. call up your buyer to come get the oil.

or you can sell the seeds directly to any of 5 different biodiesel processing plants that operate in Texas today, most of them around your area, within 2 hours drive Im betting, and save yourself the hassle of cracking, pressing, filtering and such.

ccheek,

I'm a little confused about this cracking business.  The fruit cannot be harvested, dried, then put directly in the press?  What exactly is this "cracking" step and why is it necessary? Can you describe in detail the process of going from harvesting the fruit to pressing the oil just so Im clear on whats involved?  Looking at this video of an expeller press, it seems they are putting a hard coated seed into the press hopper directly:

 http://agoilpress.com/video.php?type=jatropha2

Are these "uncracked" seeds? And if so, why can this expeller press handle them and your press cannot?  Can you elaborate more on the design of your "10-ton hydraulic press"?  I am not interested in involving anyone else in the production of oil.  I am interested in growing and pressing my own oil to burn directly in my own SVO converted vehicles on a self-sufficincy level.  I have no interest in making biodiesel until someone invents a way for me to make my own methanol and KOH efficiently and safely.

 Also, can you give me contact information for the nursery where you purchase your jatropha seeds?

I have heard from other sources that jatropha will not survive even the mild winters we see here in Texas.  One fellow on a forum I read recently mentioned that all his jatropha plants died after only being down to 40F.  What is your experience with jatropha tolerance of cold?  

 If you wouldnt mind, please respond via direct email if you can to: perdurabo93 at yahoo dot com

 I am most interested in your your experience with jatropha producton.

i suppose you can press the fruit if you wish, but your filters will be working much harder and you'll spend lots more $ on filters than you will on the manual labor to follow these steps.

cut the fruit, removed the seeds. dispose of the fruit however you wish, im just going to toss mine back onto the land the trees are planted in.

spread the seeds out on tables, allow to dry out for a couple of days, (will help with water removal later) you'll have much less water to remove.

have you ever seen cashews processed? its a soft nut, but in a hard shell, surrounded by a fruit that is pure poision to humans, thats one reason they are so expensive.

i am sure any press i design, could handle the seeds, cracked or not. its all in the filtration afterward, nice link you provided though, everyone is coming up with new ways to do it. i saw one video where there is a conveyor belt, running to two steel drums, the seeds are cracked, pressed and the seedcake is spat out the other side while the oil just rotates down the drum and falls off the bottom.

the thinking here is do you want 40% of the oil from the seeds while others are obtaining 97% of the oil from the seeds and only loosing 3%?

i have had no experience with the cold yet, as i got my first sapling in mid april. so this winter will tell i guess. I've only about less than $200 into the entire project so far so if they all die its not a big loss. and i've had fun with it. but, i will say this, while jatropha seems in a lot of cases to be dead, they actually are not. every time i make a cutting and transplant it, it looks dead for a few weeks, then boom, up starts new leaves and shoots. perhaps that fellow on another forum was a little hasty? i've read up a lot on it too, from all i have read, its 32 degrees for at least 8 hours to kill the tree. so far, all tests indicated anything hotter, or shorter periods at 32 and the plant does come back.

 as far as making your own methanol, i havent read up on that because my intent was to use my own production of biodiesel fuel for older diesel engines, (meaning i wont have to use lye or methanol or KOH or anything, just filter the oil and into the tank it goes. oh yea, after a degumming process (still reading up on that).

http://echobooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1609&osCsid=f9231331f57318b6abedaed470f2b629

this is the link to the website where i bought my seeds, so far, 24 out of 2 packs. i have 13 packs left. 11 out of one pack and 13 out of the other, at $4.00 per pack i think its a great deal. i'll send this to your email too.

Clint

first of all, i would like to say im extremely jealous of anyone that can grow jatropha. I wish we didnt have our slight freezes here. Anyways, i wanted to throw ths out there...i was doing my research and saw a few companies in india that sell the seeds and the seedlings. they have seeds for 550bucks for 1 ton. now i realize freight will cost an arm and a leg but for anyone looking for large scale ops that would be the way to go. on the other hand...seedlings from them are 60 bucks for 1000...dunno if this is good or not but if you would like me to forward you the email they sent me i would be glad to. the 2 websites they sent me were: www.indiamart.com/dawnexports and www.jatrophaseedsexporter.com good luck and hope this helps someone!

triskit16:

first of all, i would like to say im extremely jealous of anyone that can grow jatropha. I wish we didnt have our slight freezes here. Anyways, i wanted to throw ths out there...i was doing my research and saw a few companies in india that sell the seeds and the seedlings. they have seeds for 550bucks for 1 ton. now i realize freight will cost an arm and a leg but for anyone looking for large scale ops that would be the way to go. on the other hand...seedlings from them are 60 bucks for 1000...dunno if this is good or not but if you would like me to forward you the email they sent me i would be glad to. the 2 websites they sent me were: www.indiamart.com/dawnexports and www.jatrophaseedsexporter.com good luck and hope this helps someone!

thanks for the information, but from 2nd hand experience, (buying my first sapling from cactus jungle in california), Hap (the owner) told me he waited 3 years after ordering, while the plants sat in warehouses in LA, for the ag inspector, to clear them for inport.

I tried to order more saplings from him again, and after 2 weeks, the ag inspector still hadnt made his rounds or gotten around to the jatropha from india, so, i found echo in florida. ordered 15 packs. looked at the site again the other day and now they limit each purchase to 5 packs because they are running out. I have 31 plants up and growing (well, still waiting on 5 to germinate) and about 200 more seeds to plant. I'll be considering whether i wish to sell saplings and or seeds here in the US. already cleared, just like walmart hahahaha.

or going ahead with my biodiesel production. one thing is for sure, if you want jatropha, you'd better be prepared to wait on the seedlings, saplings or seeds. hate to sound childish but I've got mine, and its enough to (within a few years) fill the 50 acres i hope to have.

know anyone with land for sale? around 3500 an acre is what i'll pay, im not going for any of this over inflated land. scrub brush land at 45,000 an acre, sheeeeeesh! hehehehehe

clint

i live in virginia and i know i cant grown them but have ordered some from the site u posted just to please my curious nature. i currently make biodiesel from wvo and supplies are getting tougher and tougher to find and hold onto. im probably going to plant about 5 seeds and see how they react to the weather here. as far as the real estate...im in the same boat as u. ive got a buddy in the coast guard stationed in houston and i would love him to find some land for me but then i wouldnt be able to tend to it. the closest land i have is in nw alabama and they still get their share of cold weather...its stinks, especially for me because i dont even have the ability to do this on the large scale i would want to do it. good luck finding land. i will try to keep an eye out for you since i have my nose buried into real estate half the day anyways!

you may not believe this, i just found 25 acres for 50 grand, but it may be in a flood plain, the realtor is checking for me, if its not, then i think im in business, if it is, I may be able to get enough fill dirt to raise the whole plot about 2 foot, (fill dirt is mostly free around here).

otherwise, i'll need a front end loader and section it, push up enough dirt to do 5 acres at a time, while i wait on the free fill dirt for the rest. but thats cool. i'll only have enough trees for the first acre this year so far. unless echo will send me more seeds. I've enough for about a quarter of an acre so far. luckily you can take cuttings, though i dont like doing that. i'd rather grow from the seed, (read my other post about how the root systems work with jatropha). better rooting system from the seed.

25 acres for 50 grand, almost unheard of in this area. man im kinda jazzed about it. i hope this comes through.

clint

 I have a friend who just bought property in the corpus christie area and we both wouldn't mind some cuttings.  you can email me at gabrieleantony@yahoo.com my name is tony.  Also I studied biochemistry for my undergrad and am studying environmental engineering for a masters now and would be interested in helping with jatropha projects whatever they may be though I have little experience......can call me too at 310 686-1109 thanks

more news from South Texas Jatropha Farms.

first, i gotta find a new name. that one just doesnt ring a bell does it?

second, i just ordered 1000 seeds off of ebay, the seller has a 100% rating with over 200 sales. so i think im safe.

third, just finished the paperwork (initial) on applying for the 25 acres i found at $2000 per acre, pure farmland. excellent growing conditions, there's milo or some other grain on it now and has been for the past 40 years so i know it's good soil. i plan on using the seedcake as fertilizer so if i can get past the first harvest (a fairly sure deal) then every one after that will be even better since the seedcake is basically a great fertilizer.

now if i could just finish up the few projects i have around the house, i would have room to plant another 100 seedlings and after the loan is approved, have my first acre fully covered with 1200 saplings and more growing at home to take out there. its 12 miles from my house so just a short trip to go check on them every now and again.

all im lacking now is a well. i'll have to save up a bit for that and get it dug. hoping i can use a wind generator to provide the electricity to power the electric motor on the well and irrigation system.

i read a story on a company called texcom that was supposed to build a biodiesel plant here and be in full operation in 2006, i emailed them but i dont expect a response. and i havent heard of any big biodiesel plant around here so i guess i'll have to design a press or buy one.

so far no one has responded on a co-op for corpus christi, tx in  biodiesel, so i guess i'll go it alone. TAMU and the univ of florida havent responded to much so i guess they can collect their own data and dont care about seeing a full production of seed to sapling to tree to harvest to press to biodiesel in actual operation. their loss i guess.

if anyone else is interested, let me know, i'll be happy to share data.

i've asked natescape for permission to upload photos of my tiny crop right now, its the start of what i hope is to become a major biodiesel production here in south texas. i'm going to try to include a rider about purchasing the 25 acres, that i get first dibs on the other 30 acres they have for sale in the same spot. thats 55 acres of jatropha curcas possible. equal to 55000 at one harvest per year, or 110000 at two harvests, and if the water wells work out very very very well, 3 harvests at 165000 gallons per year. diesel should be around 6 bucks or more per gallon by then. give it a couple of years and i'll fricken retire hehehe. or sell out to some company for a few mil.

wishing you all the best of luck with your projects. im having a blast with mine, even if i dont make a penny, its still fun!!!!!!!!

and thats the point, enjoy life and try to make a small difference somehow.

Clint