South Point Propagation was founded in 2004 and is a sole proprietorship owned by Ted Seaman.  It began as a part time venture to fill a need for quality landscape plants and windbreak trees in Kau and South Kona on the Big Island in Hawaii.

The Big Island Fuel Crops Project is the result of many years of interest, research, and discussions. This past year was spent in still more discussions, and more discussions, and more discussions. Still no one was willing to step up to the plate and tackle the issues confronting biofuel crops in a demonstration project and no solid offer of funding came from any of the hundreds of hours I spent in meetings and discussions. By mid-year it was evident that if I didn’t begin now we would be waiting another few years for someone to step forward.

Today we are gearing up for intense research and the eventual production of biofuel crops on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are moving the bulk of our nursery and research operations to a newly leased parcel of land in Pahala, Kau, Hawaii. We have also leased a 20-acre parcel of land to conduct the field studies a few miles from the nursery.

We have a long road ahead of us to get where we need to be when we need to be there and we have already made great strides towards or goals. With the continued support and collaboation with our partners, the Hawaii Biodiesel Consortium, the University of Hawaii Hilo-Department of Agriculture, and the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center (and adequate funding) we will continue our course towards reaching our primary goal.

      One of the few young saplings found at any of the sites. Given that most of the trees we have found were planted during the sugar plantation days at former plantation worker campsites and they have not spread from the campsites and other places they were intentionally planted; it can be concluded that Jatropha curcas is not highly invasive in Hawaii as reported.

New home of the Big Island Fuel Crops Project. The Farm Systems testing site is on the right where the rows of Jatropha seeds are sprouting and growing. The land behind the seedlings is being cleared for cultivar and trait evaluation of seeds, cuttings, and hybrids.

The search for the few but existing producing Jatropha Curcas trees on the Big Island is well underway. To date we have located and cataloged over 100 trees. Each tree is photographed and its traits evaluated. Cuttings and seeds are collected from trees having desiresable traits. Seeds from all trees are being or will be tested for oil content. One of the traits we are looking for is seeds consistently containing more than 37% oil.
 
The process is time consuming and often results in dead ends and costly days. The documentation required to address the invasive species label attached to Jatropha Curcas is an essential part of this phase, and the advantages of working with localized and environmentally adapted trees in our hybridization program far outweigh the costs and time spent finding them.