Relative maturity status of plant and ratoon crops of early and midlate maturing varieties of sugarcane

With a view to comparing the maturity status of plant and ratoon, a study was conducted with sugarcane varieties, namely, CoS 88230,96258, 96260, 96268, CoSe 95436, 98231, CoJ 64 (early), CoS 95222,97264, CoSe 93232, 96436, CoPant 90223 and Cos 767 (midlate) planted in Zonal Varietal Trial (Plant 1998-99 and Ratoon 1999-2000) at Seohara (Bijnor). Data for pol percent in Cane in ratoon revealed 6.59%, 12.50% and 5.05% higher pol percent in cane in December, January and February, respectively in early group and 6.56% and 0.54% higher in January and February, respectively in midlate group than their corresponding plant crops. Pol percent in cane at 12 months age in March reduced by 1.43% in ratoon of early group and 4.45% in ratoon of midlate group when compared with their plant crops. On mean basis ratoon of early group in January (14.22) exhibited pol percent in cane at par with plant of midlate group in March (14.15). In March, cane quality of early plant revealed 3.67% superiority over midlate plant and early ratoon 6.95% superiority over midlate ratoon. Study also revealed that in January, quality of early plant (12.64) was at par with the quality of midlate ratoon(12.51). In both the varietal groups, ratoon crop, in general, recorded higher pol percent in cane than plant crop upto February. Early group exhibited its superiority in quality over midlate group. The magnitude of superiority of early group over midlate was recorded maximum (13.67%) in January followed by 10.22% and 6.95% in February and Mach,respectively in ratoon crop and 7.7% in January followed by 5.49% and 3.67% in February and March, respectively in plant crop Harvesting schedule for ratoon and plant crops of early and midlate varietal groups from December to March discussed in the paper revealed that for higher recovery the early ratoon may be crushed upto the end of February.