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The recommended method of growing them is to plant 1,000 trees on a hectare of land, preferably in a tropical area, then test them for their vigor, growth and yield about three years later, which ordinarily would lead to culling about half of them.

Okay, if I'm following this correctly, they recommend planting 1000 trees on the equivalent of 2.5 A of land.

About four to six years later they would be measured again before culling them down to between 250 and 350 of the best trees,

So far, we're 4 to 6 years into the project with no financial return.

which would be inter-bred and harvested for seed.

Okay, we're going back to square one and gonna plant seeds again, with no real mention in the article of how long it's going to take a tree to reach maturity and be a maximum producing capacity. It seems it would be 12-15 years just to get the seeds crossbred and producing to grow more trees. That's a long time to go without any cashflow.

It appears this Diesel Tree will only grow in the Tropics, but of course it could be crossbred with a sturdier variety of tree which thrives to zone 2 or 3.

If you're from the upper Midwest, you might recall the Jerusalem Artichoke fiasco. I don't know why Jerusalem Artichokes kept popping into my mind while I read this story.

The Popcorn tree will produce seeds long before that 12-15 years span. And they can be used immediately.

But, in the case of these trees in Australia (tropical part) you can harvest the sap like maple syrup, not wait for seeds. Thus you would be making fuel while waiting for good hybrid seed production...............