Jatropha - planting, growing and care at home, photo species

Jatropha (Jatropha) - a succulent deciduous shrub from the family Euphorbiaceae. In vivo, it is common in the rocky deserts of Central America and Africa, and the homeland of Jatropha is the Caribbean Islands. The plant is used to create hedges, landscaping parks.

With good care, the jatropha can live more than 15 years and reach 0, 8 m. It grows intensively, growing by 20 - 35 cm per year. The tall lignified stem of the shrub has an unusual bottle-shaped shape, expanded at the base and tapering at the top. In the spring, flowering begins. It can last all summer. Jatropha milky juice is poisonous, although some types of flower have healing properties.

	Jatropha is growing rapidly, up to 35 cm per year.
	In spring, flowering begins, ends in late summer.
	The plant is easy to grow.
	It is a perennial plant.

Useful properties of jatropha

Jatropha is gouty. A photo

Items that have not been used for a long time, gradually lose their original value, turning into trash. Total accumulation leads to stagnation of energy. Absorbing internal positive energy, trash blocks possible paths to well-being, inhibits development.

It’s hard to be in such an atmosphere. Conflicts often occur here, and health deteriorates. In a house that looks like a warehouse, it’s good to have a jatropha. The flower restores the circulation of energy and heals the energy flow.

Caring for jatropha at home. Briefly

Jatropha grows well at home, but sometimes there are small difficulties when growing it. It is important to know the preferences of the plant and create a favorable environment for it. Optimal for jatropha are:

Temperature mode	In winter, a decrease to + 15 ° C is permissible; in summer + 23 ° C.
Air humidity	Carries dry air.
Lighting	Bright diffused; a window facing east or west.
Watering	Moderate; in the summer - once every 10 days, in the fall - once every 30 days; do not water in the winter; spring begin to water when the buds appear.
Priming	Ready soil for succulents or a mixture of 2 parts of leaf soil and taken in 1 part of peat, vermiculite, turf land, perlite.
Fertilizer and fertilizer	During the growth period, once every 30 days, they are fertilized with liquid fertilizer for cacti.
Transfer	Every 2, 5 years, in the spring.
Breeding	Apical cuttings and seeds.
Growing Features	It is necessary to be especially careful when watering, to avoid waterlogging of the soil and water getting on the trunk so that the jatropha does not die.

Caring for jatropha at home. In detail

Home jatropha - a plant compliant and almost not capricious. It adapts to indoor life. But the owner’s task is to create an atmosphere for the flower in which it grows harmoniously, with pleasure showing its beauty.

Flowering jatropha

Jatropha flowering begins in early spring and sometimes continues until autumn. The first time the jatropha blooms in about 2 years. Small coral flowers up to 10 mm in diameter are collected in loose umbrella inflorescences. Often they appear before large palmate leaves.

Umbrellas open gradually and stand open for several days. In one inflorescence, male and female flowers are adjacent. Women’s hold on for a long time, and men’s - not more than a day, but after the closed bud a new one forms. Jatropha flowers are odorless. As a result of flowering, trihedral fruits are formed containing brown oval seeds.

Temperature mode

When growing jatropha, it is important to observe the temperature regime. In winter, a temperature drop of + 15 ° C is permissible. In summer, the flower is kept at + 18 - 23 ° C. Allowed content at normal room temperature. This facilitates the creation of conditions during wintering.

If the jatropha begins to drop leaves, it is necessary to lower the temperature by 2 - 3 degrees. The plant does not like drafts. Even in the summer, they do not take him outside.

Spraying

Jatropha at home tolerates dry air normally. Spraying is not required. While caring for the plant, periodically wipe the leaves with a damp cloth to remove dust.

Lighting

Jatropha is a photophilous plant, prefers bright diffused lighting. It is located on windows facing east or west, protecting from direct exposure to sunlight. If the windows face north, the flower can be accustomed to a shaded place. But periodically you need to turn on the backlight. The younger the jatropha, the more shade-tolerant it can grow. In the spring, they teach to increase daylight hours gradually.

Watering

Like all succulents, jatropha is a thrifty plant. Preserves moisture at the bottom of a powerful stem. Therefore, watering is required moderate. Between watering, the upper and middle layers of the soil should dry out. For jatropha, waterlogging is much more dangerous than overdrying: the root of the plant can begin to rot even with medium substrate moisture. Usually watered every 10 days in the summer. In autumn, if the jatropha has not yet begun to discard foliage, it is watered 3 days after the soil dries.

When the foliage is discarded, watering is stopped and renewed only in the spring when new buds appear. Use lukewarm, settled water. Excess moisture leads to rotting of the stem, falling of leaves and death of the jatropha.

Jatropha pot

The jatropha flower at home develops harmoniously and feels good if the pot is correctly selected. The jatropha pot needs a low, wide enough and stable. Jatropha does not tolerate stagnation of moisture, so 1/3 of the volume of the tank is discharged under the drainage layer, drainage holes must be at the bottom.

Soil for jatropha

Jatropha prefers a loose water and breathable substrate with neutral acidity (pH 6, 5 - 7, 5). You can buy ready-made soil mixture for succulents or prepare soil for jatropha by mixing turf soil, peat, leaf soil, vermiculite, perlite (for two portions of leaf soil take 1 part of the remaining components).

To enhance the drainage properties of the substrate, brick crumb is added to it.

Fertilizer and fertilizer

Fertilizing and fertilizing helps the plant fill up the deficiency of nutrients, look cheerful and beautiful. Caring for the jatropha at home does not imply frequent top dressing. In winter, feeding is prohibited. The plant is fertilized during the period of intensive growth (from early March to mid-October) once every 30 days.

The universal liquid fertilizer for cacti, diluted in half, is applied after watering. Top dressing is carried out in the evening or in cloudy weather.

Jatropha transplant

Jatropha transplant is carried out after 2, 5 years. In mid-March - April, the plant is reloaded into a new container. During transshipment, an earthen lump at the root is maximally preserved, so the plant experiences less stress than with a conventional transplant.

Expanded clay is poured at the bottom of a wide shallow pot and the substrate onto which the plant is placed and covered with the remaining substrate, compacting it around the roots so that there are no air voids. It is important not to deepen the growth point, otherwise the jatropha will not develop. The plant is well watered and mulched. In 2 weeks it will be possible to feed him.

How to crop jatropha

Trimming the apex can result in branching of the plant. But at the jatropha, the upper part is usually not cut off so as not to distort the original appearance of the flower. In this case, pruning is used for sanitary purposes to remove yellowed and damaged leaves.

Jatropha rest period

The resting period of the jatropha falls in the winter. At this time, the flower is kept at ordinary room temperature, without changing the usual lighting. Do not feed and do not water.

Is it possible to leave the jatropha without leaving on vacation?

Jatropha tolerates the absence of hosts, especially when vacation falls in the winter. You can leave calmly: in winter, the flower is at rest. Before leaving, the plant is not even watered. If you plan to go on vacation for 2 weeks in summer, the flower is well watered before departure and placed in a place protected from draft and direct sunlight.

With a longer absence in the summer, you will have to ask relatives to look after the flower.

Jatropha breeding

Jatropha propagation at home is carried out by apical cuttings and seeds.

Growing jatropha from seeds

Growing is difficult because it is difficult to find fresh seeds: they lose their germination within 2 months after harvest.

• Sow superficially on moist soil.
• Cover with film or glass and leave at + 23 ° C.
• Shelter is removed to ventilate and water the seedlings.
• The first shoots usually appear after 2 weeks.
• A few days later they are dived into separate containers.
• The plants grow rapidly. Young leaves have a rounded shape, in 1, 5 years they will become palm-divide. Gradually, the trunk will become thicker.

Jatropha propagation by cuttings

Propagation by cuttings is easy. Root apical cuttings, the length of which reached 15 cm, are rooted.

• In the open air, the wound is dried until the juice ceases to stand out.
• The cutlery is placed in a solution of a stimulator of root formation.
• They are planted in the ground and covered with a plastic bag or a cut plastic bottle (holes are made in the shelter so that the seedlings "breathe").
• At a temperature of + 27 ° C, the roots will appear in about a month.
• The shelter is removed and the plant is transplanted into another container.
• Cuttings are cut off by wearing gloves to prevent toxic juice from getting on hands.

Both breeding methods are used in spring. When choosing a method, it must be remembered that there is a long way to go from seed to plant, and the resulting plant can be very different from the mother instance.

Diseases and Pests

Jatropha is a hardy plant, but sometimes it is affected by diseases and pests. Often improper care causes the following problems:

• jatropha leaves fade - excess moisture (adjust watering);
• jatropha leaves are crumbling - lack of light (rearrange in a brighter place);
• young leaves of the plant are too small - deficiency of nutrients (feed);
• the lower leaves of the jatropha turn yellow and fall - natural process (it is necessary to remove damaged leaves in time);
• jatropha roots rot - excess moisture; cold water is used for irrigation (reduce the amount of water taken for irrigation; use warm water);
• jatropha leaves turn yellow and fall - attack of a spider mite (insects are washed off with warm water, the flower is treated with an insecticide);
• flowers fall - damage to the jatropha by thrips (carefully wash off with insecticide from shoots and leaves of insects, then treat the plant with an insecticide);
• jatropha began to grow slowly - overfeeding of the plant (fertilizers are applied in diluted form, and only in moist soil).

Sometimes the jatropha is affected by whiteflies, thrips, spider mites, mealybugs, scale insects.

Types of home jatropha with photos and names

About 150 species of jatropha are known. At home, some of them are cultivated.

Gout Jatropha (Jatropha podagrica)

Plant height up to 1 m. The thickened stem looks like an amphora. Leaves appear later than flowers and consist of 5 rounded segments with elongated ends. The total diameter of the leaf plate is up to 20 cm. Young leaves are glossy bright green. Later they darken, lose their luster. The lower part of the leaves and petiole are grayish-bluish. Bright coral small flowers are collected in inflorescences - umbrellas. Peduncles develop slowly. Flowering lasts a month.

Dissected Jatropha (Jatropha multifida)

The height can reach 2.5 m. The leaf blades are dark green with a grayish tint (the center is lighter than the edges). Wide (up to 25 cm) leaves are divided into 6 -11 lobes. At a young age, the bush looks like a palm tree. Tall peduncles with small coral flowers rise above the foliage.

Jatropha Berlandieri (Jatropha cathartica) Jatropha berlandieri (Jatropha cathartica)

Low bush. The height of the stem is about 35 cm. The diameter of the lower part of the stem is 15 - 25 cm. Palm-shaped dark green leaves have a grayish tint and small denticles along the edges. Loose inflorescences consist of bright pink flowers.

Jatropha is a grateful plant. In response to elementary care, she will give a long flowering, revealing bright coral umbrellas over an unusual stem.

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