Effect of Planting Material and Row Spacing on Sugarcane Yield and Quality

	Effect of Planting Material and Row Spacing on Sugarcane Yield and Quality
Jornal of Al-Muthanna for Agricultural Sciences
Article 1, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 1-11
Abstract
Abstract Field experiment was conducted at Al-Majaar Al-Kabher south Iraq to determined the effect of two planting materials (Whole Stalk and billet) and four row spacing (1.25 , 1.50 , 1.75 and 2 m) on sugar cane Saccharum officinarum L. yield and quality for crop yield and subsequent ratoon crop cycle for year 2007 and 2008, respectively. Cane yield and its attributes responded differently to different planting material and row spacing. Planting whole stalk on narrow row 1.25 and 1.50m gave higher cane yield (80.4 and 78.5 t/ha, respectively) than billet planting on the same row spacing (53.8 and 63.2 t/ha, respectively). Planting whole stalk on narrow rows gave higher stalk no./m2 (18.2 and 17.9 stalk/m2 for 1.25 and 1.50m row spacing, respectively) than billet planting (15.3 and 15.4 stalk/m2 for 1.25 and 1.75m row spacing respectively). Ratoon crop cycle gave also higher cane yield and stalk no./m2 when planted whole stalk compare to billet planting. Planting whole stalk gave higher stalk height than billet planting in only crop yield cycle. Reduced row spacing from 2 to 1.25 resulted in increased stalk height and reduced stalk diameter in plant cane and subsequent ratoon crop cycle. The two planting materials prove to be similar in yield quality in crop yield crop cycle but in the first ratoon billet planting gave 0.9% higher in pol% cane than whole stalk planting. Reduced row spacing increased pol% cane and purity% in sugarcane plant cane and ratoon crop cycle. This result showed that improvement of sugarcane production in Iraq could be achieved as first step by manipulating the current cultural practices.

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