Objective To evaluate the effect of pruning on seedlings of Jatropha curcas L. during the nursery stage.Design/Methodology/Approach. To determine the effect of pruning on Jatropha curcas L. seedlings during the nursery stage, a study was carried out at the nursery of the CPA “Abel Santamaría” of the Martí municipality, Cuba. A complete randomized design was used. Three treatments (T) were tested: 1) control (without pruning), 2) pruning 30 cm above the soil and seedling defoliation, 3) pruning 30 cm above the soil and without seedling defoliation. A descriptive analysis was carried out to determine the survival, regrowth, and number of plants with primary branches. For the number of leaves and branches, height, and diameter, a simple analysis of variance was used, with partitions for each observation.Results. No treatment inf luenced the survival and regrowth of the plant: up to 2 branches of T2 and T3 were obtained per plant. A greater height was recorded with T1 (38.63 cm) and this result is different from T2 and T3. The highest number of branches that formed primary branches was obtained by pruning and without defoliation (28 vs. 22 and 0, for T2 and T1, respectively).Study Limitations/Implications. Pruning is an option that can increase Jatropha’s agronomic yield, but it has not been studied under nursery conditions.Findings/Conclusions. The pruning of J. curcas seedlings at 30 cm above the ground, under nursery conditions, with or without defoliation, does not affect the survival or regrowth of the crops and the development of the primary branches. However, more plants with primary branches and a wider stem diameter can be obtained by pruning without defoliation.
