B.SC HONS SECOND YEAR BOTANY HONS

1. Sugarcane cultivation
Dr. Sujit Ghosh

2. Growth phases of sugarcane

3. Steps of sugarcane cultivation
Bud selection
Nursery preparation
Main field preparation
Fertilizer application
TransplantingTransplanting
Intercropping
Weeding
Mulching
Organic method of cultivation
Water management

4. Select healthy
canes of 7 to 9
months old
with10-12 buds
Remove buds
from the selected
canes using an
implement called
Bud Chipper
The chipped buds
have to be treated
with organic or
chemical
Bud selection
(450-500
canes per
acre is
required)
with10-12 buds
per cane.
chemical
solutions.

5. Nursery
1. Arrange cocopith tray
and filled with well
decomposed cocopith
and insert half portion
of cone.
2. Place the buds flat/
slightly slanting position
in the cones of a tray
7. During six leaf stage
(about 20 days old
seedling), grading of the
plants has to be done.
Nursery
preparation
3. Cover the bud chips
in trays completely with
coco-pith.
4. For proper rooting
Care should be taken to
avoid water, air or
sunlight entering into
the trays.
5. By using warm
temperature by using
electric bulb rooting
takes place within 3 – 5
days, while shoots will
also appear in next 2 to
3 days.
6. Maintenance of
moisture content of
coco-pith, by applying
water for next 15 days
using rose cans.

6. Tillage
• digging, stirring, and
overturning – ½ week gap
then againdigging, stirring,
and overturning
Addition of organic
manures
• application of organic
manure as it enhances the
macro and micro nutrient
content in the soil
Making furrows and
ridges
• 5 ft between
rows (advance methods)
and 2.5 ft between old
methods
Main field
preparation
Removal of residues
• Collection and clearance of
crop residue and stubbles
Fertilizer application
• NPK can be applied at the
rate of 112 kg, 25 kg and
48 kg per acre

7. Ideal age of transplanting
from nursery to the main
field is 25 to 35 days
Plant to plant distance of 2
ft has
While transplanting to the
main field, zigzag method
of planting can be followed
to utilize more space and
achieve maximum tillers
Transplanting
Intercropping
Intercropping in sugarcane with crops like wheat, potato, cowpea, french bean, chickpea,
water melon, brinjal etc. for the purpose of effective utilization of land, this practice will
reduce the weed growth up to 60% and give extra income to farmers.

8. Weeding :
Deep ploughing and removal of perennial
weeds (30, 60 and 90 days after planting)
Mulching:
(layer of material applied to the surface of
soil) by removed leaves
Organic method of cultivation:
FYM/compost/well-decomposed press
mud (about 8-10 tonnes/acre.
Trichoderma and Pseudomonas (each 1
kg/acre
Water management:
•After transplantation, the frequency of the irrigation
may differ depending on the soil type, age of the
crop, rainfall and moisture availability. For sandy soil,
the frequency will be more and for clay soil it will be
less.
•Give irrigation once in 10 days during tillering stage
(36-100 days), once in 7 days during Grand Growth
period (101-270 days) and once in 15 days during
Maturity period (from 271 days till harvest)

9. •Raising nursery using single-budded chips (conventionally, 2-3 budded sets are
used and normally no nursery is prepared).
•Transplanting young seedlings (25-35 days old), after grading (conventionally,
direct planting of 3-budded chips is done). Raising a nursery and grading reduces
plant mortality significantly as compared to conventional cultivation.
•Maintaining wide spacing (5 x 2 feet) in the main field, which reduces the seed
requirement by 75% from 48,000 (16000 3-budded chips) to 5000 single-budded
chips per acre (conventional spacing is 1.5 x 2.5 ft). Wider spacing supports easy
air and sunlight penetration in the crop canopy, leading to better and healthier
cane growth. It also allows for easier intercultural operations.
•Providing sufficient moisture and avoiding inundation of water, whereby 40% of
water is saved (conventionally, flooding is practiced). This is significant as
sugarcane consumes about 2500L of water per kg of sugarcane produced.
•Encouraging organic methods of nutrient management and plant protection.
•Practicing intercropping (which is possible due to wider spacing and non-
flooding), thereby increasing effective utilization of land, giving additional income
and reducing weed growth by 60%.
•All of the above practices, lead to increased length and weight of individual canes,
and alteast 20-25 tillers/plant and 9-10 millable canes/plant, as compared to 10-15
tillers and 4-5 millable canes in conventional cultivation.

10. After being harvested, sugar cane is
transported to a mill and crushed
between serrated rollers
crushed sugar cane is then pressed to
extract the raw sugar juice
The raw juice is then heated to its boiling
point to extract any impurities, then lime
and bleaching agents are added and mill
The raw juice is further heated under
vacuum to concentrate and increase Brix
value. The concentrated syrup is seeded
and bleaching agents are added and mill
mud is removed.
value. The concentrated syrup is seeded
to produce bulk sugar crystals and a thick
syrup known as molasses.
The two are separated by a centrifuge and
the molasses waste stream is collected for
use as a low-grade animal feedstock.
The bulk sugar crystals from the above
process are fiirther refined, further
purified by carbonation or phosfloatation ,
filtration, decolourisation and then
seeded with fine sugar crystals. Once the
crystals have grown to the requisite size,
the crystals are separated from the syrup
by centrifuge, then dried, graded and
packaged.