Abstract

Jatropha curcas and Pongamia pinnata are the promising biofuel species worldwide that contained 35 to 45% seed oil, respectively. Due to the reason of high oil content of these seeds are liable to getting easily deteriorated by fungal and insects during storage and that could hold the limitation of spreading through afforestation. To resolve this problem, the present study was carried out with J. curcas and P. pinnata seeds pelleted with leaf powders of Azadirachta indica, P. pinnata and Adhatoda vasica in order to study the effects of botanical pelleting storability and production of quality seedlings at nursery. This experiment was conducted at Department of Seed Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India during 2009 to 2010. The results revealed that J. curcas and P. pinnata seeds pelleted with pungam and neem leaf powder showed the maximum germination percentage and growth characters at nursery, respectively. From the study, it was also observed thatJatropha seeds pelleted with pungam leaf powder recorded 169% higher germination and P. pinnata seeds pelleted with A. indica leaf powder registered 92% higher germination than control after 9 months of storage. We conclude from this study that, botanical leaf powder seed pelleting not only improve the longevity of seeds through protecting the seeds from fungal and insect attack but also improve the seed and soil relationships through enriching the rhizosphere region of seed to produce better growth and development.

Key words: Jatropha, pungam, leaf powder pelleting, seed storage, growth, development.