Harvest managements and cultural practices in sugarcane

Abstract

SUMMARYThe presence of trash from the mechanical harvest of green cane on sugarcane plantations promotes changes in the agricultural management, for example, in the mechanical cultural practices of ratoon cane in-between the rows and nitrogen (N) fertilization. The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of sugarcane in different harvest systems, associated to the mechanical cultural practices in interrows and N rates. The study was carried out on a sugarcane plantation in Sales Oliveira, São Paulo, Brazil, with the sugarcane variety SP81-3250, on soil classified as Acrudox, in a randomized block design with split-split plots and four replications. The main treatments consisted of harvest systems (harvesting green cane or burnt cane), the secondary treatment consisted of the mechanical cultural practices in the interrows and the tertiary treatments were N rates (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 160 kg ha -1 ), using ammonium nitrate (33 % N) as N source. The harvest systems did not differ in sugarcane yield (tons of cane per hectare -TCH), but in burnt cane, the pol percent and total sugar recovery (TSR) were higher. This could be explained by the higher quantity of plant impurities in the harvested raw material in the system without burning, which reduces the processing quality. Mechanical cultural practices in the interrows after harvest had no effect on cane yield and sugar quality, indicating that this operation can be omitted in areas with mechanical harvesting. The application of N fertilizer at rates of 88 and 144 kg ha -1 N, respectively, increased stalk height and TCH quadratically to the highest values for these variables. For the sugar yield per hectare (in pol %), N fertilization induced a linear increase.Index terms: nitrogen fertilization, mechanical cultural practices, green cane, Saccharum spp.( A presença da palha no campo, oriunda da colheita mecanizada sem despalha a fogo, implica em mudanças no manejo da cana-de-açúcar, como na realização do cultivo mecânico da soqueira e na fertilização nitrogenada. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o desenvolvimento da cana-de-açúcar submetida aos diferentes sistemas de colheita, associado à realização ou não do cultivo mecânico, e à aplicação de doses de nitrogênio (N). O trabalho foi desenvolvido na região de Sales Oliveira, SP, em área comercial de cana-de-açúcar, com a variedade SP81-3250 (2º corte), em um Latossolo Vermelho acriférrico. O delineamento foi em blocos casualizados com parcelas subsubdivididas, em quatro repetições, em que os tratamentos principais eram os sistemas de colheita (cana crua ou cana queimada); os tratamentos secundários à realização ou não do cultivo mecânico; e os tratamentos terciários às doses de N (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 e 160 kg ha -1 ), usando como fonte o nitrato de amônio (33 % N). Os sistemas de colheita não diferiram para a produtividade da cana-de-açúcar (t ha -1 de cana -TCH), porém a cana queimada apresentou maior teor de sacarose (Pol) e açúcar total recuperável (ATR), sendo esse fato em razão, provavelmente, ...

Harvesting Systems, Soil Cultivation, and Nitrogen Rate Associated with Sugarcane Yield

“…In our research, the N-fertilization increased the stalk yield [18,25,49,53,54], where during the experimental period the highest sugarcane yield was obtained after applying rates between 120 and 150 kg ha −1 N (Fig. 3), corroborating other authors [25,26,46], who suggest applying N rates near 150 kg ha −1 of N in green cane system.…”

“…This tends to indicate that little reliance should be placed on obtaining a substantial supply of soil nitrogen under a green cane trash blanket harvesting system, due to the low mineralization of N content in straw [3,45], which has a high C:N ratio: 100:1 [19]. On the other hand, the straw on the soil surface contributes to increasing the nutrient cycling [46] and to the chemical, physical, and microbiological attributes in the soil [10,47], which can increase the sugarcane yield [48] or reduce the decline of stalk yield [49,50].…”

Nitrogen Use Efficiency for Sugarcane-Biofuel Production: What Is Next?

“…However, incorporation of fertilizer in crops under GCTB systems is more difficult [99], and it requires specialized equipment and climatic conditions to ensure successful operations. Moreover, incorporation of fertilizer has been shown to result in similar or even lower yields compared to single-side surface-banding application [155,156].…”

Agronomic performance of green cane fertilized with ammonium sulfate in a coastal tableland soil

“…A quadratic response to N fertilization was also observed by Castro et al (2014) using ammonium nitrate as N source for a sugarcane crop growing on a clayey soil, to which a maximum cane yield of 119 Mg•ha −1 obtained with 144 kg N•ha −1 was reported. These results occurred independently of the harvesting system (green or burnt) or the use of subsoiling operation in the interrow space.…”