Lodging reduces sucrose accumulation of sugarcane in the wet and dry tropics

Abstract

Previous experiments in the Australian tropics have observed a 'slowdown' in biomass accumulation in mature sugarcane crops. By installing scaffolding to prevent lodging, we eliminated the growth 'slowdown' in 3 experiments to confirm that lodging and stalk death are part of the explanation. In both the wet and dry (irrigated) tropics, lodging of sugarcane significantly decreased both fresh cane yield and commercial cane sugar content (CCS). Prevention of lodging increased cane yield by 11–15%, CCS by 3–12%, and sugar yield by 15–35% at the final harvest in August–September. The rate of increase in CCS in lodged cane was reduced following lodging, although CCS had partially recovered by harvest.A possible component of the lodging effect is a slowdown in the growth due to the ageing of the crop. However, a younger crop (late crop treatment) grew no faster than the scaffolded treatment and so discounted this. In the dry tropics, where cane is irrigated and grows under high radiation, sugar yield was 40 t/ha with scaffolding installed. The increased yield (compared with 35 t/ha in lodged cane) was due to both the survival of an extra 0.8 stalks/m2 and increased accumulation of sugar in live stalks. In 2 years in the wet tropics where sugar yield with scaffolding was 16 t/ha, the same factors, with the addition of increased biomass accumulation in live stalks, were responsible for the increase.

Plant adaptation to climate change—opportunities and priorities in breeding

“…While pastures and forests can be reasonably resilient to wet conditions including waterlogging, sugarcane productivity is severely compromised by low radiation, and by submergence and lodging. A local impact of intense low-pressure systems, including cyclones, is the combination of intense rainfall and high wind speeds, which causes lodging and reduction of sugar content in sugarcane (Singh et al 2002) and, potentially, damage to plantation forests. Northern inland pasture systems are generally favoured by La Niña events (Park et al 2003) and could respond positively to climate change in terms of productivity, albeit with a need to buffer production between years of high and low rainfall (O'Reagain et al 2011).…”

Negative effects of lodging on irrigated sugarcane productivity—An experimental and crop modelling assessment

“…In experiments conducted in Australia, sugarcane crops were physically prevented from lodging by means of bamboo scaffolding (Singh et al, 2002). These experiments revealed that prevention of lodging resulted in 11 -15% and 15 -35% higher cane and sugar yields respectively.…”

“…Lodging is known to reduce the productivity of sugarcane through lower biomass production and a reduction in cane quality (Muchow et al, 1995;Singh et al, 2002;. These effects are caused by a reduction in radiation interception, radiation use efficiency, stalk smothering, stalk death and stalk snapping in lodged crops (Muchow et al, 1995;Singh et al, 2002;Park et al, 2005).…”

“…These effects are caused by a reduction in radiation interception, radiation use efficiency, stalk smothering, stalk death and stalk snapping in lodged crops (Muchow et al, 1995;Singh et al, 2002;Park et al, 2005). More labour input is also required to harvest lodged cane and reduced payloads of cane delivered to the mill are common.…”

“…More labour input is also required to harvest lodged cane and reduced payloads of cane delivered to the mill are common. Mechanical harvesting of lodged cane also results in infield damage to disrupted stools, which causes gaps inside the cane rows (Singh et al, 2002).…”