Abstract:

The buds after anthesis were treated with ethephon at different concentrations at different time and different places after flower to understand the effect of ethephon on the flowering and fruit set of Jatropha curcas. The results showed that: there was no obvious promotion on the development of flower. There was more number of inflorescence on the growing apex treated with ethephon than on the control, but the difference was not significant. Ethephon had remarkable inhibiting effective on the fruit set of the previous inflorescences, the higher the concentration, the more distinctive the inhibition. The statistics analysis showed a significant negative correlation between them. The number of fruit of each branch was obvious different between the two trial sites, but there was not remarkable different in the number of inflorescence. As a result, the treatments of ethephon in one month after anthesis had obvious effect to inhibit the fruit set and it could be used to thin fruit or to control the number of fruit.