This plant is also a major resource for indigenous people, and they drink the sap and use the leaf ash medicinally. It is used to treat, amongst other things, snake bites, sore throats, wounds, and eye discomfort. The plants that are grown commercially don't offer much ornamental interest, but there are a wide variety of cultivars that are now grown in garden landscapes.
Given sugar canes love of hot temperatures, they are typically grown as annuals, but they can be overwintered indoors. Just bear in mind they typically reach two or three meters and sometimes more in height. Sugar cane makes an excellent privacy screen or border and can act as an interesting accent or focal point in gardens. The spent canes are also known for making a beneficial organic mulch. The foliage colors vary depending on the cultivar you select, but they tend to be large and richly green with sharp edges - so sharp that care has to be taken when handling.
They typically produce flower spikes in the fall, although these will only bloom on plants being grown as perennials rather than annuals. It is the stalks of sugar cane that makes them most easy to identify.
They are thick and have jointed internodes, and the shades can also vary depending on the cultivar. If you want to grow sugar cane as a perennial, you will need to live in a warm region that, ideally, receives a lot of precipitation, or grow them in containers that can be overwintered indoors. Otherwise, they can be grown as annuals. For gardeners living in warmer regions, these plants can become invasive with the right conditions, so proper maintenance and consideration of where they are being planted will be important.
If you want to harvest your sugar cane, it can take up to two years before this is possible, and harvesting should be done before flowering as this uses up energy and the sugar concentration will not be so high. Sugar cane does best in a full sun position. If you have a shady garden , this won't be the plant for you. This plant can do well in most soil types, proving they are well-drained. It prefers it to be deep and friable crumbly too.
Sugar cane is known for being an energy-hungry plant. It saps the nutrients from soil rapidly. So a soil rich in organic matter is going to be important. Many enthusiasts mix a fertile compost and lime into the soil. Sugarcane grows slowly. Did you know that it takes months for this crop to reach maturity, depending on the climate? Second, sugarcane likes it hot! Indeed, those warm conditions lead to high water evaporation and transpiration. This means that sugarcane is growing in an environment that makes it prone to water loss.
For those reasons, it needs about mm of water throughout its growing period! If you were a sugarcane, where would you feel most comfortable? Brazil offers great climate to grow sugarcane at great yield. It is the largest producer with million metric tonnes of sugarcane and 40 million metric tonnes of sugar India is the second producer, with 27 million metric tonnes of sugar.
You might think that rainfall in regions like Brazil or India would palliate with the high-water requirement of sugarcane. But, remember that water loss generated by evaporation is a major concern in those regions, and leads to crop losses.
Solutions exist to counteract water losses in those regions. We can improve water efficiency infrastructures like irrigation systems. For the most part, sugarcane is classified into three categories: crystal cane, syrup cane, and chewing cane. Crystal cane contains a high percentage of sucrose, so it is mainly used for commercial purposes to crystallize the sucrose into granular sugar.
Syrup cane has less sucrose and is more fluid. Some varieties have multi-uses, as they could be suitable for sugar production and still be great for chewing. Chewing cane is soft, with fiber that sticks together when chewed, and can also be used for making syrup. Consequently, cutting longer stalks into shorter, six-bud seed pieces, will improve germination and plant density. Pieces with a single bud are best planted in pots as seedlings and later transplanted in the ground.
A sugarcane plant can produce several stalks each, of which can grow well over ten feet and become fully mature in about 12 to 14 months. The best time to plant is between September to November and sprouting will start in early spring.
0コメント