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Anyone growing sugarcane?

 
Citrus Growers Forum Index du Forum -> Fruit & Tropicals other than citrus
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A.T. Hagan
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Posted: Tue 31 Jan, 2012 1:33 pm

Well, it's not a fruit, but it is a tropical/sub-tropical plant.

I just put in my first patch of sugarcane this year and was wondering if anyone else grows as well?

Mine will be for the production of cane syrup though if I expand the patch this year as I intend I may play with taking some all the way to solid sugar then trying to refine it.
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jcaldeira
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Posted: Wed 01 Feb, 2012 2:46 am

I have a small patch of sugar cane for eating raw. The variety I have has a soft interior, so it's easy on the teeth after it's been peeled. The bark is purple.

Cane needs to be replanted every 3 or 4 years to keep the yield high.

The commercial sugar mills heat the can juice in a vacuum to evaporate the water. It reduces much faster with less energy than at atmospheric pressure. Yields is about 10:1 cane:dry sugar by weight.

In many developing countries cane is sold as a snack food. This photo is Kenya:



John
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A.T. Hagan
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Posted: Wed 01 Feb, 2012 11:30 am

Yes, sugarcane is popular where ever it can be successfully grown. Chewing cane is common here in the deeper parts of the U.S. south among the people that like it. I have a few stalks of a variety known here in the States as "Cold Hardy Eight" which is a good chewing cane.

Commercial sugar in Florida is concentrated in the southernmost part of the state in the Everglades. But sugarcane for purposes of making cane syrup or for chewing can be grown all over the state and as far north as a line through central Georgia and Alabama and parts of the coastal Carolinas. North of that sweet sorghum becomes more practical.

Most of what I have planted are good syrup varieties meaning they possess more glucose/fructose than sucrose so that the syrup made from their juice is less likely to turn to solid sugar in the bottle.

When I first took an interest in cane it amazed me to discover there are literally thousands of varieties, but given that it is grown pretty well across the entire tropical/subtropical world and is a major agricultural industry in many areas I should have expected that.
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Hershell
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Posted: Wed 01 Feb, 2012 9:01 pm

I grow a large green cane that is soft and a large purple cane and one small cane that is called POJ. I had some of my grandfather's syrup making equipment but someone borrowed it in the night. My brother made a hand operated mill to extract the juice that works pretty good.

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Nothing in the world takes the place of growing citrus.
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Chris
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Posted: Thu 02 Feb, 2012 3:23 am

It surprises most people that sugar cane is BY FAR the largest single agricultural crop in the world (almost as much as #2 and 3 combined).

But if you think about it, almost everything in your kitchen has at least a little sugar in it. Very Happy
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Millet
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Posted: Thu 02 Feb, 2012 1:59 pm

Chris, I believe sugar cane is not the most grown crop in the world. The most grown crop in the world, for land area under cultivation, is wheat, and has been for a long long time. - Millet (355 ABO-)
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A.T. Hagan
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Posted: Thu 02 Feb, 2012 3:00 pm

In the few minutes I just spent Googling this I can't find a clear answer to "most grown crop in the world." Some sources do say it is sugar cane, some say wheat, others say corn.

Probably have to get down to specifically what one means by "most grown"? Land area, tonnage, value?

In terms of tropical/sub-tropical area though unless it is just too arid I'd be willing to bet that sugarcane is the number one crop.

All of mine is actively growing again. That last cold spell didn't quite freeze it.
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Millet
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Posted: Thu 02 Feb, 2012 6:09 pm

After reading Hagan's post I also looked up on the Internet. As Alan wrote, the correct answer all depends on the what the criteria is. Wheat is by far the largest crop, if the amount of land that is used to grow the crop is the criteria. Sugar cane is the largest crop if tonnage is the criteria. Certainly corn would be up there among the top. Perhaps Marijuana if the criteria is the amount of guns required. - Millet (355 ABO-)
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Chris
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Posted: Fri 03 Feb, 2012 2:21 am

It was one of the most memorable statistics from the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond (highly recommended).

I guess it was based on production rather than land use. A good statistic to win a bet with at a bar somewhere in an agricultural area. Laughing
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TRI
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Posted: Fri 03 Feb, 2012 2:41 am

There are cane varieties especially good for chewing. I have NEVER tried to grow it though. Citrus and tomatoes have been my interest for growing most of life.
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A.T. Hagan
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Posted: Fri 03 Feb, 2012 4:47 pm

There are more uses for sugarcane than just making sugar or syrup. I seldom see mention of sugarcane out on the west coast.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2012/01/growing-sugar-cane.html

Sugar cane, a sweet crop that's easy to grow
January 31, 2012 | 9:30 am




When Rey Koo and Robby Whitelaw were starting up their sugar cane juice business in Hollywood five years ago, they were worried that they wouldn’t find a large enough supply of the long, green canes for their juice crusher. Fresh raw cane juice is the basis for many of the drinks they sell at farmers markets and Raw Cane SuperJuice, their juice bar.

“We discovered there are a lot of people who grow this — not as a cash crop but for a wind guard or for cultural or ritual reasons,” Koo says. “If you take the [Metro] Blue Line to Long Beach, from the train you’ll see a lot of homes with sugar cane growing in the backyard.”

She’s adept at spotting the distinctive, feathery plumage of sugar cane. Born in Taiwan and raised in San Jose, Koo remembers childhood holidays marked with treats of chewable sugar cane, fresh from the Central Valley. Sugar cane would be on the altars for Chinese New Year and Day of the Dead.

Whitelaw is a native of KwaZulu-Natal province, the so-called sugar cane coast of South Africa.

In 2007, the two started producing sugar cane juice for natural foods stores. They found a network of growers, mostly Hmong in Fresno and Vietnamese in San Diego. The best plants for crushing out juice are straight, with long sections between the nodes. Different hybrids have different tastes.

“We look for a minimal dense juice, a dark color with a finish that is a little bitter and very grassy,” Koo says.

When she gets her stalks from her grower, she adds, all the buds — the embryonic shoots at the nodes — have been cut out.

Sugar cane is easy to grow and propagate, a highly efficient plant with an extensive root system. It can be grown as a windbreak, as Koo suggests, along perimeters of gardens. When young, sugar cane can be inter-planted with veggies.

At the Growing Experience in Carmelitos, gardeners raise juice varieties and chewing varieties of sugar cane for the group's community supported agriculture boxes. Although sugar cane grows best in humid conditions, it can be drought tolerant and requires little care.

“It’s not hard to control, but you have to harvest every year,” garden master Manuel Cisneros says.

Hands must be well protected because the leaves can slice the skin. “Like paper cuts, only maybe three to five times sharper,” he says with a laugh.

If left unchecked, sugar cane, like certain types of bamboo, can get away from you. At some community gardens, sugar cane is on the prohibited list — flora non grata.

Ken Jennings of Worldwide Exotics in Lake View Terrace stocks Pele’s Smoke, an ornamental perennial with green-red stalks; when the feather emerges, it’s paper white. The canes are sweet, but that’s not the purpose. The variety is more attractive than other sugar canes. “But you can’t ignore them," Jennings says. "Then they get ugly.”

-- Jeff Spurrier

The Global Garden, a look at our multicultural city through what it plants, appears on Tuesdays. For an easy way to follow future installments, join our Facebook page for gardening in the West.






Rey Koo uses sugar cane to make drinks sold at the
Hollywood Farmers Market.



Leonidas Quesava tries a sugar cane drink at the
farmers market while his dad, Thaddeus Quesava,
awaits the verdict.



Dried stalks of sugar cane are sold for good luck
in L.A.'s Chinatown.



Fresh stalks, peeled and ready to chew.
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A.T. Hagan
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Joined: 14 Dec 2005
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Location: Gainesville, Florida, United States, Earth - Sol III

Posted: Fri 03 Feb, 2012 4:49 pm

If there are any folks in a conducive climate that have an interest in trying their hand at growing sugarcane here's a basic primer from the Florida Extension Service.

Backyard Sugarcane
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sc052
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