Planting season

• In different growth phases sugarcane required different weather condition like weather favorable for vegetative growth in active growth stage and favorable weather for sucrose accumulation on ripening stage.
• Planting of sugarcane can be done in three different season.

a. Autumn planting:

• It is done in subtropics in September-October, soon after the cessation of south-west monsoon.
• Second fortnight of September to first fortnight of November is recommended for good crop yield.
• Autumn planting gives favorable soil moisture condition and moderate weather condition due to which planted crops established well and give a good initial stand.
• Since autumn planted crops get longer growing period, the autumn planted crops generally gives higher cane and sugar yield.
• But yet autumn planting is not popular due to interference of winter crops.
• Planting of sugarcane in autumn should be completed as early as possible otherwise winter temperature would affect germination of bud.

b. Spring planting

• It is done during February –April after the harvest of winter crops
• During its early phase of growth, it is subjected to sever moisture stress and high temperature condition which restricts its growth and start to grow after the onset of south-west monsoon in June till winter and goes to ripening.
• As it has only 5-6 months for active growth it gives relatively less yield than other planting.

c. Summer planting

• It is done in April-May when the spring planting is delayed by late harvesting of winter crops.
• It gives low yield due to difficulties of field preparation, non-availability of seeds, difficulty in irrigation, prone to loss due to shoot borer and high termite incidence.
• Also, it has got some advantages like lesser irrigation requirement due to less duration of crop on field, lodging is minimized due to closer spacing, more sugar per unit area and better ratooning.

Seed rate

• General recommendation for normal planting time in flat bed method is 40000 three budded setts or 60000 two budded setts are safe.
• The seed rate will be 55-60 quintal/ha, if the cane is thick and the seed rate 45-55 quintal/ha if the cane is thin.

Varieties

There are 3 main groups of varieties, they are:

a. Early varieties: They attain 16% sucrose and are low yielders.eg-Jeetpur-1, Jeetpur-2, B.O.-128.

b. Mid-season varieties: They have moderate sugar and moderate yielding.eg-B.O-110, CoSe-92423, CoSe-92430, CoS-707.

c. Late season varieties-They attain 16% sucrose and mature at age of 14-16 months.eg-B.O.91, B.O.-88

• Varieties recommended for different situation of the field: Upland condition: B.O.-91, Jeetpur-2, B.O.-128, CoS-767. Water logged condition:B.O.-91,B.O.-128,CoSe-92423 Low input condition:B.O.-91,B.O.-128,Jeetpur-2
• Irrigated condition-Jeetpur-1, Jeetpur-2, B.O. 128, B.O.-91 B.O -110.Jeetpur-2 is the most important S/C growing variety of Central and Eastern development region.