The Bionic Enterprises Group Sustainability in energy and agriculture

Monthly Archives: September 2012

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Bionic Jatropha Breeders reach F2 interspecific hybrids

At the breeding orchard of Bionic Palm in Ghana our Jatropha breeders have again passed a milestone: the first interspecific hybrid line has reached its F2 generation with 3 successfully raised seedlings. Again this milestone opens up a whole new world of breeding opportunities especially when the population of this Read more →

The Bionic Cocoa project

At Bionic Palm an exciting new agroforestry project has been brought on the way. The Bionic Cocoa project will feature double hedges of Cocoa trees planted alongside local food crops like maize, pepper, tomatoes, okra, cocoa yam, plantain and more. Bionic Palm’s experience from over 3 years of Jatropha/food crop farming Read more →

Heterosis a promising tool in Jatropha Breeding

Recently the Jatropha breeders at Bionic Palm found that heterosis can become one of the very interesting tools in their breeding program. Heterosis (also called hybrid vigor) is defined as “the increase in growth, size, fecundity, function, yield, or other characters in hybrids over those of the parents”. Very impressive effects Read more →

Jatropha Breeder discusses Elite Cultivars

A new chapter has been just published on the Jatropha Breeder 3.0, a blog on Bionic Palm’s development of non-toxic commercial planting material. The Bionic Palm MD is discussing the question how to best define an elite Jatropha cultivar. He takes us through the various traits (or properties) a plant breeder Read more →