Effects of Soil Water Availability and Organic Matter Content on Fruit Yield and Seed Oil Content of Castor Bean1

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the castor bean cultivar "BRS 188 Paraguaçu" to available soil water for plants and soil organic matter content based on their effects on fruit yield and seed oil content. A 2 × 4 factorial experiment was conducted from October 2008 to March 2009 under field conditions using randomized complete block design; two soil organic matter contents (5.0 and 25.0 g•kg-1) and four available soil water levels for plants at the irrigation time (70, 80, 90, and 100% of the total available soil water) with three replicates were tested. On each experimental unit measuring 100 m 2 , 50 plants were cultivated with a spacing of 2 m × 1 m (24 useful and 26 border plants). Analysis of variance (F test) was performed; qualitative factors (soil organic matter) were compared by Tukey's test and quantitative factors (available soil water) by regression analysis. Increased soil organic matter and available soil water for plants substantially increased productivity; however, seed oil content, mean 100-seed mass, mean 100-fruit mass, and seed:fruit ratio were affected by available soil water content alone. Therefore, the tested cultivar is sensitive to reduced available soil water content, which severely decreases its productivity.

EVALUATION OF OILSEED RADISH ( Raphanus sativus L. var. oleiformis Pers.) OIL AS A POTENTIAL COMPONENT OF BIOFUELS

“…A number of crops are grown specifically for biofuel production and are known as energy crops. These vary according to geography: for example, corn, soybeans, willows and switchgrass are common energy crops in the United States; rapeseed, wheat, sugar beet and willows are preferentially grown in northern Europe; sugarcane is grown in Brazil; palm oil and Miscanthus giganteus are grown in Southeast Asia; and sorghum and cassava are grown in China (Anand & Khanna, 2019;Lacerda et al, 2020;Sala et al, 2022). Brazil is one of the world leaders in the production of biofuels from plant oils.…”