I bought some sugar canes from the grocery store. Can they be rooted?
Can I root this sugar cane?
I can't see why not unless they have been treated to prevent rooting. You should give it a try!
Caren
You might want to post in the Grass & Bamboo forum. Sugarcane is a grass, and I'm not an expert at all on grasses, but I think they really need to be grown from seeds or by dividing. I don't think you can start them from cuttings. Could be wrong though, but the grass forum people would know for sure.
When the Sugarcane fields here are started they use freshly cut canes and lie them on their side and they root in to the ground. The new stems come from the nodes.
Moodine grows alot of sugarcane you might Dmail her.
Thanks! I have to go out and buy some more soil. I bought a bunch of "produce" from the grocery store I'm going to plant.
Sugar cane, malanga, yuca, um.... oh, taro and maybe I'll try a coconut however much I doubt it'll work.
I would have picked up a cactus pad if I didn't already have some.
Oh! I forgot some ginger root!
I wouldn’t say that I am an expert but I grew up on a sugar cane farm. Here is how we plant the cane so just extract what you need from the process.
In late summer the fresh fields are plowed into rows and then a second plowing opens up a V furrow in the center of the row. The cane is laid down in these furrows two by tow side by side. Immediately afterwards the furrow is plowed over and lastly a compactor is rolled over the top of the fresh planted stalks.
The planting always occurs during late august through mid October and the crop sprouts from the joint eyes and grows up to one foot tall before the first freeze. In the spring this fresh growth is cut even with the top of the row to allow new sprouts to emerge.
Sugar cane love hot, wet weather and will grow to maximum height before October of the following year. The freshly planted cane will do well for two to three years and grow back from the stubs after it is harvested. After the third year the production declines and replanting is necessary.
If you live in a cold climate the roots or stubs will die and not produce in the spring. Here in south Louisiana, the summers are too short for the canes to flower, but I witnessed sugar cane flowers while working in South America.
Hope this has helped. Good luck Oldude.
Oh yes.. I got canes..growing too..in this crazy weather I am having..
I ran out of dirt, have to buy some more tomorrow, but I stuck a stalk in an aquarium I have with the aerator going. I hope it'll work like a hydroponic propagator.
Why do the canes have to be laid on their side? Is it so that they get the optimum amount of moisture without it evaporating from the exposed stalk, if it were vertical?
I would love to try growing sugar cane, but all the cane I've found over here has been frozen or treated so that it won't germinate. :(
I had sugar growing in the ground here and tried to take it out after it got too big. Each piece of stalk that got left behind in the soil sprouted at a joint. It's indestructible in FL!
Cathy
Laid down sideways will give you more growing stalks.Otherwords...each joint of the stalk will be a growing shoot...I posted a pic of mine under..What a mess! post..all my stalks are laid down sideways and I plant them in orchid moss in a tub first to make sure they are growing..they are now nearly 2 feet tall ,still in the tub,and in the hothouse.
CaptMicha
I suppose that you could plant sugar cane vertically, but it may dehydrate where you cut the stalks between the joints. Planting horizontally puts more nodes/joints under ground for sprouting.
Back in the fifties we grew a blue colored sugarcane that was very good for home consumption. As I recall it was locally named blue ribbon sugar cane. The commercially grown sugar cane these days are hybrids that produce more sugar, disease resistant but are hard as nails.
If you have enough juice, you can make your own syrup. It’s really easy.
Oldude
Funny you asked..I just rooted several thin pieces...they seem to be able to cope better this time of year for rooting. Not so lucky when it was hotter.
I remember seeing your posting Nadine of the cane..it was red cane right?
I see sat/sun have overninght low of 32F. I'm hoping it changes like the rest of the forecast did this week,
I was lazy and forgot to get dirt so I stuck a cane in an aerated aquarium and it's not rooting. Three to four canes are only a dollar so I'll try again the right way!
Mine were sprigs that I cut off the top, they aren't looking so perky ...
I don't even know why I did it..habit I guess...it's a weed here.