SOIL AND CLIMATE

Soil

• Heavy soils with good drainage are preferred for sugarcane cultivation, though it grows well on medium & light-textured soils also with assured irrigation. Soils with 0.5-0.6 % carbon content & pH 6.5 to 7.5 are most suitable for sugarcane growth. In northern India, it is cultivated largely on the loams & clay loams of Gangetic & other alluviums, and in peninsular India, it is grown on brown or reddish loams, laterites and black cotton soils.

Climate

• Sub Tropical: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar with an annual rainfall of 180 to 2000 mm. The climate ranges from humid, moist sub-humid and dry sub-humid to cold arid, semiarid and arid.
• Tropical region: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh with an annual rainfall of 602 to 3640 mm having moist to dry subhumid and semi-arid to dry semi-arid climates.
• Germination Temperature- 15 -32°C; 
• Tillering Temperature: 18 – 35°C; 
• Grand Growth Temperature: 14 -30°C; 
• Ripening Temperature: 12 – 15°C

LAND PREPARATION

As sugarcane crop stands in
field for more than a year, it is necessary to give deep ploughing by mould board plough drawn by tractor. The proper time for ploughing is immediately after the preceding crop is harvested or just after a good shower of rain received. The land is then exposed to atmosphere for a month. The harrowing is done 2 to 3 times to break clods and to make the land smooth and even to facilitate uniform irrigation. 4-6 ploughings to produce good tilth is recommended. Each ploughing should be followed by planking.

TIME OF SOWING

Sugarcane take generally one year to mature in sub tropical states (U.P., Punjab, Haryana, Bihar etc.) called “Eksali” however in some tropical states it matures in 18 months (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra etc.) called “Adsali”.

Subtropical regions : September to October (Autumn) and February to March (spring)
Tropical regions: June to August (Adsali);
January to February and October to November (Eksali).

Apart from this in some states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu sugarcane planting continue throughout the year except few months.

SEED RATE (per acre)

Seed rate in sugarcane varies from region to region. Generally higher seed rate are used in north western India (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan) because of the lower germination percent and also adverse climatic condition (very hot weather with desiccating winds) during tillering phase. A northern region seed rate generally varies from 14,000 three budded setts per acre while in southern region it range between 10,000 to 16,000 three budded setts.

SPACING

Sub Tropical regions: Row to Row 60-120 cm

Tropical regions: Row to Row 90-150 cm

SEED TREATMENT

1. To reduce the incidence of soil-borne diseases, setts must be treated with fungicides. Setts are first given heat treatment (50 C for 2 hours) and then treated with fungicides like 0.2% solution of Bavistin have been found effective.
2. If setts are infested with scale insect or wooly aphids, setts should be dipped in Chlorpyripos 20 EC solution (2ml/lit) before planting.
3. To enhance higher germination percentage, soaking of seed cane in normal water for a period of 12-18 hours improves germination by 12-20% particularly under late planting condition in sub-tropical India. Soaking of whole cane has been found to be more bene
   cial than soaking the setts or storing the canes in mud or cow dung for 12-24 hours reduces the water loss during cutting, planting and even later, which helps in higher germination or sett treatment with 10% solution of KMnO , MgSO or potassium ferrocyanide accelerates the bud sprouting.

IRRIGATION

In tropical area, irrigations are to be given, once in 7 days during germination phase (1 –35 days after planting), once in 10 days during tillering phase (36 – 100 days after planting), again once in 7 days during grand growth phase (101 – 270 days after planting) and once in 15 days during maturity phase (271 days after planting up to harvest) adjusting it to the rain fall pattern of the area.

FERTILISER MANAGEMENT

CROP PROTECTION MANAGEMENT

SHRIRAM VARIETIES