Jatropha curcas L Development Under Different Levels of Limestone.

Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.), also known as Phisic nut, paraguay pinion, pinion-de-fence, savage pinion, among others, is a small tree species of the Euphorbiaceae  family, originally from tropical America but now dispersed areas tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.The demand for biofuels is increasing the  requiring of alternative forms of feedstock.Jatropha can be considered one of the most promising oil Southeast, Midwest and Northeast of Brazil, to replace diesel oil.  There are none scientific research indicating that tolerance to soil acidity (Al and H +).  Also,  this work aims to study the culture of Jatropha in six levels of basis saturation (V%).  It was applied  200 kg ha^-1 of the NPK fertilizer 20-0-20 and 48 kg^-1 and nitrogen sulphate splited in two applications.  The experiment was conducted out at the experimental farm of the São Paulo State University at Selvíria, State of mato Grosso do Sul, in the border of the northwest of São Paulo State and Southern of Mato Grosso do Sul, aiming to study levels of liming application and Jatropha development.  The Experimental design was the completely blocks with six replications, with the following treatments: 1. Oginal Basis Saturation without liming; 2. Limestone to reach 40% base saturation; 3. Limestone to reach 50% base saturation; 4. Limestone for 4 to 60% of base saturation; 5. Limestone to reach 70% base saturation; 6. Limestone to reach 80% base saturation, using the source of Limestone: dolomitic limestone  (36% CaO and 15% MgO).   It was verified significant effect of liming and crop development for the three variables: height, diameter and number of shoots. The best outcome for treatment was 620g of limestone per hole in the plantation.