Evaluation of Growth and Oil Production of Jatropha under the Effect of some Environmental Conditions and Pruning in Tartus

The aim of this research is to evaluate the success of cultivating the introduced Jatropha tree in different environmental conditions within Tartous Governorate (al-Thawra agricultural site 15 m, al-Qumsia site 290 m, al-Surani site 580 m).The results showed that al-Thawra agricultural site outperformed al-Surani with a germination rate of (97.5, 90, 95) % at al-Thawra agricultural site and (70, 77.5, 62.6) % for al-Surani site in the planting dates (June, July, August), respectively. The remarkable speed of germination was (8.82, 8.06, 7.11) days / seed of al-Thawra agricultural site and (11.11, 9.13, 7.64) days / seed for al-Surani site in (June, August) respectively, and germination was relatively homogeneous at both sites.Results showed a high content of major elements of potassium and phosphorus percentage of manganese of trace elements in small leaves compared with big leaves. The average leaf content (%) of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, iron and copper were 1.52, 0.42, 2.06, 76.03, 137.28, respectively, at al-Thawra agricultural site and 1.55, 0.28, 1.88, 79.21, 59.64, respectively, at al-Qumsia site and 1.41, 0.35, 1.89, 83.62, and 98.94 respectively at al-Surani site.The death of the seedlings planted in the mountainous sites (al-Surani site, al-Qumsia) was observed during the winter season in its first year in the fields, while the third field seedlings of lower height grew well, which was attributed to the environmental conditions, especially the temperature. The average stem diameter at ground level and the average height of plants (cm) in the fourth year in the al-Thawra agricultural site for plants treated without pruning and without weeding were 5.7 and 133 respectively, for weeding treatment only 5.5 and 139.6, and for pruning and weeding treatment 6.8 and 136.2 and for pruning treatment only 6 and 132.2.The results showed poor seed production during the first fruiting season (0.0027 kg / tree when applying the no-pruning, non-weeding treatment, 0.003 kg / tree for pruning and weeding treatment, and weeding only, 0.0038 for pruning only). In the second-year production of fruiting, as production reached 0.008 kg / tree for non-pruned and non-grassy trees, 0.005 kg / tree for grassy trees only, 0.01 kg / tree for grassy and pruned trees, and 0.008 kg / tree for pruned trees only. The oil yield of the native Jatropha trees was good (59.65%) and much better than that of the experimental field in the same year (35.08 %), as well as the yield of the experimental field in its second fruiting year.