[Image: Picture of sugarcane]Hurricane Gustav's arrival one week ago exposed another weakness of Ho95-988. Broken tops are scattered through fields of 988; some fields having as much as 60% broken tops. HoCP00-950, released for propagation last year also had some top breakage. It appears that much of the crop has erected itself and whole stalk planting maybe possible. If you are thinking about planting billeted cane due to lodging, Dr. Jeff Hoy evaluated sugar yields over a crop cycle for whole stalk and billeted planting of several varieties the last few years. Here is Dr Hoy’s rankings, from best to worst, of current varieties for billet planting: L 01-283 Good, L 99-233 Good, L 99-226 Intermediate, HoCP 96-540 Intermediate, LCP 85-384 Intermediate, L 97-128 Intermediate, and Ho 95-988 Poor.
I’m sure you remember hearing about billet planting approximately six years ago; planting billets was gaining some popularity in some regions of the cane belt due to lack of labor. Manufactures began making 3 row automatic planters, but after major stand failures, nearly all producers reverted back to planting whole stalks. These growers were quick to realize planting billeted cane is much more risky than planting whole stalks, but currently your situation many not allow for you to plant whole stalks. Here are a few considerations which will increase your chances of success:
1. Do Not overfill the planting furrow with seed. Many early producers were putting down as much as 20-30 tons of billets per acre. Where excessive seed was placed in the furrow a lack of seed to soil contact occurred; this resulted in gappy stands. Total mill revenue was decreased due to reduced amount of cane milled.
2. Do Not plant into seed beds where inadequate moisture for germination occurs. Billets quickly dehydrate and energy source for growth and maintenance are quickly used up resulting in plant death.
3. Cut the longest billets you can. Red rot in billeted planted cane is also a major problem. Bacterium enters cane from exposed cuts. Red rot is present in whole stalk planted cane, but it usually affects only two or three joints, thus leaving 10-12 viable buds. However if you cut 10-14 inch billets, you will have only 2-3 buds per billet, you may lose 2/3rds of possible buds due to red rot. It is critical to cut the longest billets possible with your combine, by removing every other blade in the combine and slow down the blade speed.
If you plan to use ripeners, Dr. Ben suggest the following “Now that the cane has mostly erected itself producers can consider applying glyphosate again. One would not want to consider applying glyphosate to a field of Ho 95-988 where more than 50% of the stalks are broken. No ripening can be anticipated for the broken stalks as they have no functional leaves. Therefore, with 50% of the stalks broken one could only expect that improvement in sugar per ton of cane would be only half of what would be obtained if there were no stalks broken. Producers might want to consider increasing the rate on Ho 95-988 to the 8-ounce equivalency of Polado-L. It is not recommended that glyphosate be applied to cane where the leaves are completely frayed. Producers should delay application of glyphosate until new leaves emerge.”