Sugar cane: history. Sugarcane, its production and use Is sugarcane cross-pollinated or not?

Sugar cane resembles bamboo: its cylindrical stems, often reaching a height of 6-7.3 m with a thickness of 1.5-8 cm, grow in bunches. Sugar is obtained from their juice. At the nodes of the stems there are buds, or “eyes,” that develop into short side shoots. From them, cuttings are obtained that are used to propagate reeds. Seeds are formed in the apical panicle inflorescences. They are used for breeding new varieties and only in exceptional cases as seed material. The plant requires a lot of sun, heat and water, as well as fertile soil. That is why sugar cane is cultivated only in areas with a hot and humid climate.

Under favorable conditions, it grows very quickly; its plantations before harvesting resemble impenetrable jungles. In Louisiana (USA), sugar cane matures in 6-7 months, in Cuba it takes a year, and in Hawaii - 1.5-2 years. To ensure maximum sucrose content in the stems (10-17% by weight), the crop is harvested as soon as the plant stops growing in height. If harvesting is done manually (using long machete knives), the shoots are cut off close to the ground, after which the leaves are removed and the stems are cut into short pieces that are convenient for processing. Manual harvesting is used where labor is cheap or the site features do not allow efficient use of machines. On large plantations, they usually use technology that first burns out the lower layer of vegetation. Fire destroys the bulk of weeds without damaging the sugar cane, and the mechanization of the process significantly reduces the cost of production.

Story. The right to be considered the birthplace of sugar cane is disputed by two regions - the fertile valleys in northeast India and the Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. However, botanical studies, ancient literary sources and etymological data speak in favor of India. Many woody wild varieties of sugar cane found there do not differ in their main characteristics from modern cultivated forms. Sugarcane is mentioned in the Laws of Manu and other holy books of the Hindus. The word "sugar" itself comes from the Sanskrit sarkara (gravel, sand or sugar); centuries later the term entered Arabic as sukkar and medieval Latin as succarum.

From India, sugarcane culture between 1800 and 1700 BC. entered China. This is evidenced by several Chinese sources, who report that people living in the Ganges Valley taught the Chinese to obtain sugar by boiling its stems. From China, ancient sailors probably brought it to the Philippines, Java and even Hawaii. When Spanish sailors arrived in the Pacific many centuries later, wild sugar cane was already growing on many Pacific islands.

Apparently, the first mention of sugar in ancient times dates back to the time of Alexander the Great's campaign in India. In 327 BC. one of his commanders, Nearchus, reported: “They say that in India there is a reed that produces honey without the help of bees; as if an intoxicating drink can also be prepared from it, although there are no fruits on this plant.” Five hundred years later, Galen, the chief medical authority of the Ancient World, recommended "sakcharon from India and Arabia" as a remedy for diseases of the stomach, intestines and kidneys. The Persians, too, although much later, adopted the habit of consuming sugar from the Indians and at the same time did a lot to improve the methods of refining it. Already in the 700s, Nestorian monks in the Euphrates Valley successfully produced white sugar using ash to refine it.

Sugar appeared in Europe during the Crusades. The Arabs introduced the crusaders to sugar from sugar cane. The Arabs, who spread from the 7th to the 9th centuries. their possessions in the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, brought sugar cane culture to the Mediterranean. A few centuries later, the crusaders returning from the Holy Land introduced sugar to all of Western Europe. As a result of the collision of these two great expansions, Venice, located at the crossroads of the trade routes of the Muslim and Christian worlds, eventually became the center of the European sugar trade and remained so for more than 500 years.

In Russia, the first sugar was produced from imported raw sugar from sugar cane. On March 14, 1718, Peter I granted the merchant Pavel Vestov the privilege to produce refined sugar. In the 18th century In Russia, 7 refineries operated for processing raw sugar from sugar cane. The first attempts to cultivate sugar cane in southern Russia date back to the end of the 18th century. Later they were repeated many times, but were unsuccessful, since sugar cane is a tropical and subtropical crop. The area under reed plantings in the world is more than 15 million hectares, the yield of industrial stems is approximately 60 t/ha.

Columbus brought sugar cane to America during his second voyage to Santo Domingo, from where the cane was brought to Cuba in 1493. The development of the sugar industry in Latin America is closely related to the development of slavery. In 1516, Spanish colonialists brought the first slaves from Africa to Cuba.

At the beginning of the 15th century. Portuguese and Spanish sailors spread sugar cane culture to the Atlantic islands. His plantations first appeared in Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In 1506, Pedro de Atienza ordered the planting of sugar cane in Santo Domingo (Haiti) - thus this crop penetrated into the New World. In just about 30 years after its appearance in the Caribbean, it spread there so widely that it became one of the main ones in the West Indies, which is now called the “sugar islands”. The role of sugar produced here grew rapidly with increasing demand for it in the countries of Northern Europe, especially after the Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 and the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean as a supplier of sugar fell.

With the spread of sugar cane in the West Indies and the penetration of its culture into South America, more and more labor was needed to grow and process it. The natives who survived the invasion of the first conquerors turned out to be of little use for exploitation, and the planters found a way out by importing slaves from Africa. After all, sugar production became inextricably linked to the slave system and the bloody riots it generated that rocked the West Indian islands in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the beginning, sugar cane presses were driven by oxen or horses. Later, in areas blown by trade winds, they were replaced by more efficient wind engines. However, production in general was still quite primitive. After pressing the raw cane, the resulting juice was purified with lime, clay or ash, and then evaporated in copper or iron vats, under which a fire was lit. Refining was reduced to dissolving the crystals, boiling the mixture and subsequent re-crystallization. Even in our time, the remains of stone millstones and abandoned copper vats remind us in the West Indies of the past owners of the islands, who made fortunes from this profitable trade. By the middle of the 17th century. Santo Domingo and Brazil became the main sugar producers in the world.

On the territory of the modern United States, sugar cane first appeared in 1791 in Louisiana, where it was brought by the Jesuits from Santo Domingo. True, they initially grew it here mainly to chew the sweet stems. However, forty years later, two enterprising colonists, Antonio Mendez and Etienne de Boré, established his plantations on the site of present-day New Orleans, with the goal of producing refined sugar for sale. After de Bore's business was successful, other landowners followed his example, and sugar cane began to be cultivated throughout Louisiana.

Subsequently, the main events in the history of cane sugar come down to important improvements in the technology of its cultivation, mechanical processing and final purification of the product.

Recycling. The cane is first crushed to facilitate further extraction of the juice. Then it goes to a three-roll squeezing press. Typically, the cane is pressed twice, wetting it with water between the first and second times to dilute the sweet liquid contained in the bagasse (this process is called maceration).

The resulting so-called "diffusion juice" (usually gray or dark green) contains sucrose, glucose, gum, pectin, acids and various types of impurities. The methods of its purification have changed little over the centuries. Previously, the juice was heated in large vats over an open fire, and ash was added to remove “non-sugars”; Nowadays, lime milk is used to precipitate impurities. Where sugar is produced for local consumption, the diffusion juice is treated with sulfur dioxide (sulfur dioxide) immediately before adding lime to speed up bleaching and purification. The sugar turns out yellowish, i.e. not completely purified, but quite pleasant to the taste. In both cases, after adding lime, the juice is poured into a settling tank-illuminator and kept there at 110-116. With under pressure.

The next important step in the production of raw sugar is evaporation. The juice flows through pipes into evaporators, where it is heated by steam passing through a closed pipe system. When the concentration of dry matter reaches 40-50%, evaporation is continued in vacuum devices. The result is a mass of sugar crystals suspended in thick molasses, the so-called. massecuite. The massecuite is centrifuged, removing the molasses through the mesh walls of the centrifuge, in which only sucrose crystals remain. The purity of this raw sugar is 96-97%. The removed molasses (mascuite fluid) is boiled again, crystallized and centrifuged. The resulting second portion of raw sugar is somewhat less pure. Then another crystallization is carried out. The remaining edema often still contains up to 50% sucrose, but it is no longer able to crystallize due to the large number of impurities. This product (“black molasses”) is used in the United States mainly as livestock feed. In some countries, for example in India, where the soil is in dire need of fertilizers, the massecuite is simply plowed into the ground.

Refining it briefly boils down to the following. First, raw sugar is mixed with sugar syrup to dissolve the remaining molasses enveloping the crystals. The resulting mixture (affination massecuite) is centrifuged. The centrifuged crystals are washed with steam to obtain an almost white product. It is dissolved into a thick syrup, lime and phosphoric acid are added to float the impurities, and then filtered through bone char (a black granular material obtained from animal bones). The main task at this stage is complete decolorization and deashing of the product. For refining 45 kg of dissolved raw sugar, from 4.5 to 27 kg of bone char are consumed. The exact ratio cannot be determined because the filter's absorption capacity decreases with use. The resulting white mass is evaporated and, after crystallization, centrifuged, i.e. They treat it in much the same way as with sugar cane juice, after which the refined sugar is dried, removing the remaining (about 1%) water from it.

Production. Major producers include Brazil, India, Cuba, as well as China, Mexico, Pakistan, USA, Thailand, Australia and the Philippines.

Features of cultivation and use of sugar cane

Sugarcane grows in tropical climates with high rainfall. It is grown for sugar, furniture and other items.

Description

Sugarcane is a perennial with a root system located in the top layer of soil. Its stems are 5 cm in diameter and up to 6 m high. The color can be green, purple or brown. The leaves are long, wide and lance-shaped.

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Sugarcane is cultivated in Asia and Africa

The thicker the reed trunk, the more suitable the plant for planting.

Landing

Select the most illuminated place and prepare the soil in the fall: dig it up, apply mineral fertilizers and remove weeds. In the spring, dig up the beds again and add Nitroammofoska fertilizer.

The plant is grown in several ways:

• From seeds. Plant when the ground warms up to +15 °C. Before planting, prepare the planting area: add Nitroammophoska and compost. Then place the seeds in holes 2 cm deep. After 10 days, the first shoots will appear, and in July the plant will begin to actively grow by 3 cm every day.Be sure to feed, water regularly and break off the panicles. It is also necessary to water the plant with a superphosphate solution if its leaves turn red.
• In cool climates, grow reed seedlings. Place the seeds in peat pots and only then plant the grown plants in open ground.
• Cuttings. Select strong, mature stems. Remove the leaves from them and divide the shoots into pieces 35 cm long. Dig a hole 20 cm deep, water generously and add compost. Place the cuttings horizontally and cover them with soil. Water the seedlings generously and often. Leave 35 cm between plantings, 50 cm between rows. Water 2 times a week, weed the weeds and hill up the shoots. The reed will sprout in two weeks.

It is important to care for your sugarcane regularly and thoroughly for the first three to four months. Then the plant will cope with the weeds on its own and will tolerate drought calmly.

Collection

Start harvesting reeds 4 months after germination. The plant should be 2–3 m in height, and their panicles should be brown in color. But in the central zone of our country, reed rarely ripens completely due to the fact that the conditions and climate do not correspond to natural ones. Also in the southern regions it may not ripen if it has not been properly cared for.

If you planted plants for industrial purposes, then collect them using special equipment. And if the sowing area is small, then collect by hand. To do this, cut the stems at the root and clear them of leaves. If you follow the planting and care rules, you can collect up to 600 seeds from one panicle. The panicles need to be broken off, all the seeds removed from them, and then set aside to dry.

Every day an adult plant loses 3% sugar, so clean it in a timely manner

You can store seeds in fabric bags, but, unfortunately, they are stored for no longer than a year.

Recycling

Without processing, cane cannot be stored or consumed. To extract sugar from sugar cane, cut the stems before flowering begins.

Extract the juice by crushing the cut cane stems with iron rollers. Add freshly slaked lime to the juice to remove impurities and separate the proteins. Then heat the resulting liquid to 70 °C, and then filter. And evaporate the already filtered mixture and after that you will get crystallized brown sugar.

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Summer furniture, baskets, dishes, packaging, and musical instruments are made from reed

If you don’t have an iron roller, then there is another processing method, but with it you will get honey, not sugar. Chop the stems into 3 cm pieces, place them in a large saucepan, cover with water and cook for several hours. Check periodically, but to do this, do not try the decoction itself, but bite into pieces of the stems. If they no longer have a taste, then pour the liquid into another container and continue cooking, but over low heat. The broth can be evaporated to any consistency.

Recipes

Infusion. Grind one tablespoon of leaves and pour a glass of boiling water, cover the container with a lid and do not touch the infusion for about an hour. Then strain the liquid and drink a teaspoon four times a day. This infusion is great for getting rid of cough.

Infusion for colds. Grind 10 g of leaves and the same amount of stems, put them in a thermos and pour 250 ml of boiling water. Let the infusion stand for 5 hours, then strain. Take 50 ml drink four times a day.

Tea. Pour 50 g of stems with 300 ml of boiling water and do not touch the liquid for six hours. Then strain and drink 50 ml before meals.

Infusion for diarrhea. Pour 50 g of herbs and leaves into a thermos with a liter of boiling water, wait 40 minutes, and then strain the liquid. You need to take half a glass of medicine every 30 minutes.

To cure skin damage, grind dried cane leaves into powder and sprinkle on the damaged areas. You can also use a paste of fresh leaves, but they need to be wrapped in gauze.

You should not use sugar cane-based medications if you have hypotension or diabetes, and they are also contraindicated for pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Application

Cane sugar is produced from the plant, which improves brain activity and replenishes the energy balance in the body. It is distinguished by its brown color and distinct aroma of molasses, and the resulting sucrose is a preservative and component of medications.

After processing, the stems and leaves become feed for livestock or are also used as fuel to keep homes warm.

The plant also serves as a raw material for the production of cardboard and paper. And in southern countries, its shoots are used to construct roofs, since the material has good sound and heat insulation properties.

The work of the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Dry Subtropics (VNIISS), carried out in the period 1938-1939. the possibility of industrial cultivation of sugar cane in the southern regions of the Tajik SSR and the southeastern regions of the Uzbek SSR has been proven.

Initially, experiments in growing sugar cane in the southern regions of the USSR were aimed at producing sugar from it. However, it later became clear that for economic reasons this was not practical. Subsequently, the production of rum from sugar cane juice was adopted. If this turns out to be profitable, then the possibility of growing sugar cane for the production of sugar using the resulting cane molasses to produce rum cannot be ruled out.

Considering that wild sugar cane (S. spontanewn) grows in the floodplains of the Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Pyanj, Kafirnigan and other rivers, the Institute of Dry Subtropics (VNIISS) launched experiments on growing varietal sugar cane in these places: first near Shartuz , and then in Parhar, Termez and Denau.

Sugar cane is cultivated in the northern hemisphere up to 37° north. latitude and in rare cases reaches 39° north. latitude. In the southern hemisphere - up to 30° south latitude.

In Europe, sugar cane is currently cultivated only on the Mediterranean coast from Cadiz to Almeria at 37° north. latitude.

In terms of climatic indicators during the summer growing season, our southern regions of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan can generally be equated to the northern European regions of the sugar cane industrial zone. A significant difference is that the regions of Central Asia have very low air humidity in the summer and only some of them, like Farkhar, surrounded on all sides by the Pyanj and Kzyl-Su rivers with lush tugai vegetation, have higher relative air humidity, due to which and sugar cane develops much better here.

Observations have shown that sugar cane dies when the temperature drops to - 3.5-4.5°.

It develops well in a humid, warm climate, but cannot tolerate excess ground moisture. On soil rich in humus, reed develops well, but less sugar accumulates in it. On the contrary, on sandy soils the plant develops worse, but its sugar content is higher. Dense and marshy soils are not suitable for sugarcane. Suitable soil for this crop should be considered well-drained clay soil or clay-containing humus soil, that is, soil of alluvial origin.

According to the chemical composition, the soil must contain at least 1% lime. Soils poor in lime produce a lot of acids, and the best soil reaction for sugarcane cultivation is neutral or slightly alkaline. Sugarcane tolerates soil salinity, but this causes a deterioration in the quality of its juice.

The formation of one gram of sugar cane dry matter requires 900 g of water, since the evaporation rate of this plant is very high. Therefore, in the absence of rain, frequent and abundant watering is needed.

Sugar cane is a perennial plant, but in Central Asia it is cultivated as an annual plant due to the fact that it cannot withstand low winter temperatures.

In our conditions, sugar cane does not bloom or produce seeds, so it is planted from stem cuttings every year in the spring.

VNIISS tested the following varieties of sugar cane: Yuba, Agaul LVS, SO-281, SR-807, ROU-36. The experiments were carried out in Farkhar and Termez.

The abundance of tugai vegetation in the floodplain of the Pyanj River creates a microclimate in Farkhar with relatively high relative humidity, which, combined with high temperatures, is most suitable for sugarcane cultivation.

For comparison, we note that from 1 hectare of sowing sugar beets on irrigated lands, 90 centners of sugar are obtained, on non-irrigated lands - 45 centners.

As can be seen from the above figures, sugar cane in Central Asia produces approximately the same amount of sugar as sugar beets grown without irrigation.

After three years of experimental work on the cultivation of sugar cane, VNIISS developed agrotechnical instructions for the cultivation of sugar cane for the southern regions of the Tajik and Uzbek SSR.

These agricultural instructions boil down to the following.

Sugar cane growing areas. Sugar cane is a very demanding crop when it comes to heat, soil and high humidity during the growing season. Therefore, the southern regions of the Tajik SSR (Parkhar, Mikoyanabad, Shartuz, Voroshilovabad, Molotovabad, etc.), regions of the southeastern part of the Uzbek SSR (Termez, Jar-Kurgan, Denau, etc.) and, possibly, are promising for sugar cane culture in the USSR. ; some regions of the Azerbaijani and Georgian SSR.

Sugarcane varieties recommended foraboutproduction. As a result of variety testing of a number of promising varieties of sugar cane, taken from the world collection of the best industrial varieties, tested at the VNIISS strongholds: Termez, Farkhar, Mikoyanabad and Denau, two varieties are recommended for industrial crops in the southern regions of the Tajik and Uzbek SSR: SR-807 and SR-28/19. Let's give a brief description of them.

CP-807 - has a powerful bush, the stems of which touch each other at the base, and diverge at the top.

The leaves are spreading, wide, dark green in color. The color of the ripened internodes of the stem is light purple with a brown tint and matte, due to a continuous waxy coating. Variety CP-807 belongs to the thick-stemmed type. The stems have a diameter of 30-40 mm. The length of internodes is 150-180 mm. At the base of the stem: internodes are shorter. The leaf blades are curved in the middle part. Drying of the lower leaves by the time of harvesting reaches 40-50%. During the tillering period, the variety has a spreading appearance and requires careful inter-row cultivation. At the end of the growing season, occasionally: cracking of the stems is observed. Variety SR-807 is productive, mid-season. In Parkhar, he gave a harvest of 1100-1200 technical stems per 1 hectare (calculated from experimental plots). The sugar content is low - 10% by weight of the juice, but the sugar yield per unit is high, thanks to the powerful development of the plants. The variety is damaged by stem pests.

SR-28/19 - has a loose bush. The stems and leaves are almost erect, which makes it possible to carry out mechanized inter-row cultivation throughout the entire growth period. Drying of leaves by the end of the growing season is about 30%. Variety SR-28/19 belongs to the medium-stem varieties. Stem diameter 25-36 mm. The length of internodes is 150-200 mm. The outer color of the stem is green-yellow. The stem is slightly covered with a waxy coating. The variety is productive, early ripening, in experimental crops it produced up to 750 centners of technical stems per 1 hectare (Parkhar).

The SR-28/19 variety is the most sugary among the varieties tested in Central Asia. The sugar content in juice reaches 15%. Slightly damaged by stem pests.

Both varieties described are hybrid varieties. VNIISS continues to work to identify high-yielding, early-ripening and sugary varieties of sugar cane suitable for cultivation in Central Asia.

Crop rotation. For our conditions, we can outline the following crop rotation: 3 years of alfalfa, 2-3 years of sugar cane, again alfalfa, etc. In areas of large infestation with rhizomatous weeds, it may be necessary to include black fallow in the crop rotation.

Selecting a site for sowing sugar cane. The soil for sowing sugar cane should be culturally irrigated, with low groundwater (not higher than 1-4.5 m), light or medium in mechanical composition (sandy loam or loamy). The plots should be well supplied with irrigation water and have a flat topography. In uneven areas, due to uneven irrigation during watering, variegated development of plants is observed, which leads to a decrease in yield.

The soil of the site must be fertile, not depleted, loose and cleared of perennial rhizomatous weeds (gumai, kylkia, licorice, adopiric, etc.). Cuttings of sugar cane planted in the spring do not grow for a long time (about three weeks), so when shoots appear, weeds can choke out the young plants. If the soil is clogged, then in the spring it is difficult to distinguish sugarcane seedlings from cereal weeds. During spring weeding, young sugarcane shoots are often pulled out along with weeds.

When preparing areas for sugar cane, it is useful to keep heavily weeded soils in a dry year-long fallow. The treatment of such steam consists of uprooting the rhizomes of perennial weeds, drying them in the sun and burning them.

Areas for sugar cane are selected in the fall to allow for the opportunity to carry out all the preparatory work, that is, plan, plow and fertilize.

Sugar cane is a light-loving plant and does not tolerate shade. Therefore, the land plot for it should be completely open, far from tree plantings.

Soil preparation. After harvesting the plants of the previous sowing, tractor plowing of the area is carried out to a depth of 25-30 cm.

On weedy soils (fallow lands, alfalfa), two autumn plowings are carried out. The first is shallower, 15-18 cm, and the second is deeper, 25-30 cm. Before the second plowing, fertilizers are applied.

There should be a break of at least one month between the first and second plowings. After each plowing, weeds are carefully selected. Autumn plowing, in addition to loosening the soil and clearing it of the rhizomes of perennial weeds, contributes to the accumulation of moisture in the soil and the fight against certain agricultural pests and plant diseases. In order to additionally accumulate moisture in the soil, one winter watering can also be recommended in December or January.

After the second autumn plowing, the field is left unharrowed for the winter. Dry remains of weeds are collected from the field and intercroppings into heaps, and then burned. If there are dry bushes and dry grass in the intervening areas nearby, then they also need to be burned, since one of the sugar cane pests, the stem borer, overwinters here.

In the spring, as the soil dries out on the site, double spring plowing is carried out to a depth of 20-25 cm, followed by harrowing and sampling of weed rhizomes.

For soft and loose soils, one spring plowing is sufficient. After this, the area is harrowed with horse-drawn or tractor harrows "zig-zag" in 3-4 tracks to make the soil surface even and smooth.

Before the last plowing, mineral fertilizers are applied per 1 hectare:

nitrogen (N) - 60 kg

phosphoric acid (P 2 O 5) - 20

potassium oxide (K 2 O) - 30-40

Soil preparation for sowing sugar cane should be completely completed by March 15-20.

Procurement, storage and preparation for planting of sugarcane planting material. Planting material is prepared in the fall. The best, most ripened sugar cane crops are selected for it. Sugarcane intended for planting is harvested in late October or early November. It is very important that it is not exposed to frost, since frosts below 4° kill the buds of this delicate plant.

Cut sugarcane stalks are carefully sorted.

After sorting and cleaning the leaves, the sugar cane stalks are stored strictly according to variety. Trenches for storing planting material are dug 1.5-2 m deep, 2 m wide and of arbitrary length depending on the amount of stored material.

Sugarcane stalks are laid in trenches in layers. Each layer (one stem thick) is sprinkled with a thin layer of earth. When the trench is filled in this way, a layer of earth 500-600 mm thick is poured on top with slopes on both sides of the trench to drain water. Grooves are installed around the trench to drain water.

In spring, the stems are dug up and sorted again. Only the best, healthiest planting material is left for planting. All stems that are not ripe, with damaged or questionable buds, are discarded. Before planting, the stems are cut into separate cuttings with two healthy buds. When cutting stems into cuttings, the internode is cut in half so that the cut is not close to the bud.

The cuttings are delivered to the field, where they are immediately planted to avoid drying out.

If during winter storage the planting stems have somewhat dried out or wilted, then before cutting them into cuttings they should be immersed for a day in water with a temperature of at least 15-18°. In this case, the stems are cut into cuttings after soaking. This event promotes better rooting and regrowth of cuttings. To some extent, the lock is also one of the ways to combat the pest - the reed borer.

It should also be borne in mind that before laying the stems for winter storage, it is necessary to cut off the apical, immature parts of the stem, since decay always begins with them.

Sugar cane planting. Before planting sugarcane cuttings, the field is marked with a horse marker. The direction of the rows is set in such a way as to ensure proper watering of the crops along the furrows in the future. The marker is made in 4 teeth with a distance between teeth of 1.2 m.

After marking the fields, they begin to make furrows with a double-furrow horse-drawn plow with a device that fills the bottom of the furrow with loose soil.

Sugarcane cuttings are placed in a furrow at a distance of 50-60 cm for the SR-28/19 variety and 80 cm for SR-807, so that the plant density per 1 hectare is: for the SR-28/19-13 thousand variety, for SR- 807-40 thousand. By moving the plow in reverse, the furrow with the cuttings is filled up, and the other one remains as an irrigation furrow. The plow is installed so that the cuttings are buried to a depth of 6-8 cm.

At the end of planting, post-planting watering is carried out with a shallow stream of water to avoid erosion of the still loose furrow.

In the first years of sugarcane cultivation, in order to save planting material and guarantee the correct number of plants planted per 1 hectare, sugarcane is planted with pre-germinated cuttings. Germination is carried out by planting cuttings in a semi-warm greenhouse 20-30 days before planting. Sprouts from such germinated cuttings quickly appear on the soil surface, grow better and more vigorously, reducing and facilitating the initial care of the crop. To avoid frost damage, germinated cuttings should be planted not too early, namely between April 10-25, depending on local meteorological conditions.

Depending on the type of sugar cane, the amount of planting material is 20-25 centners per 1 hectare.

Watering sugarcane crops during the growing season. Watering of sugarcane crops is carried out along the furrows with a small stream (infiltration irrigation), preventing flooding of the ridges. The soil should be well moistened by horizontal and vertical infiltration until the furrow crest turns black.

Irrigation by flooding and flooding is not recommended. The best time of day for watering should be considered the second half of the day and night. The most advanced method of irrigation is tube irrigation.

At the beginning of the growing season, at lower temperatures, watering is carried out every 10-12 days, and starting from June, more often - every 8-10 days. The frequency of watering and the amount of water depend, in addition to meteorological conditions, also on the structure of the soil. On light and less moisture-intensive soils, watering is carried out more often, but less water is given. Overdrying of the soil, as well as excessive moisture, is not allowed. The soil should be moist, but not wet, throughout the growing season, since sugar cane does not tolerate swampy conditions.

Inter-row cultivation of sugar cane crops. Loosening the rows is usually done with horse-drawn cultivators, and in the rows the soil is loosened manually with ketmen. Loosening the soil should begin as it dries. Drying of the soil after watering is not allowed." During the growing season of sugar cane, 10-12 loosenings should be given with a horse-drawn cultivator to a depth of 10 cm.

Simultaneously with loosening, all weeds are removed. By the end of the growing season (August, September), loosening, especially in rows, should be carried out more superficially so as not to damage the root system, which in sugar cane comes close to the surface, spreading in the horizontal direction.

In addition, during the growing season you should give at least 2-3 additional fertilizers, which include:

nitrogen (N) - 90 kg

phosphorus (P 2 O 5) - 40 kg

potassium (K 2 O) - 30 kg

During the last feeding, mainly potassium and a little nitrogen are added.

Harvest. The duration of the growing season within the active average temperatures (+15°) for sugar cane in our country is 180-200 days. In areas of wide distribution (India, Java), sugar cane has a much longer growing season, which better ensures its high yield. Therefore, we should strive to extend the growing season as much as possible, taking advantage of all the favorable meteorological conditions of a given year.

First of all, sugar cane is harvested, intended as planting material for the next year; later, sugar cane is harvested for factory processing.

Usually from October 20-30 before the onset of the first autumn frosts or after the first small matinees, sugar cane is harvested for planting; Harvesting of sugar cane intended for processing takes place in early November and can continue throughout November and even a little later.

Harvesting is carried out by a team: two cut off the tops with panicles with a sickle to hard internodes, two workers following them chop the stems with special heavy knives (chops); followed by the remaining 7-8 people who clear the stems of leaves. Such harvesting is very labor-intensive work, and during industrial reed plantings it must be replaced by mechanized harvesting.

Cleaned sugarcane stalks are sent to the factory to be processed into sugar, fresh leaves are used for ensiling or directly fed to livestock, and dry leaves and other cane residues in the field are piled up and burned for pest control purposes.

It is advisable to immediately process the stems sent to the plant on the same day to avoid sugar losses.

Control of pests and diseases of sugar cane. The main pest of sugar cane is the cane stem borer. This is followed by the mole cricket and the fall armyworm. The reed is also partially damaged by beetleworm (larva) and locusts.

Borers are a group of insects whose larvae (caterpillars) cause damage to sugar cane by boring passages in its stems. In spring, on young reed shoots, stem moth butterflies lay eggs on the underside of the leaf or in the vagina. After a few days, young caterpillars hatch, which feed on the surface of the plant for 1-2 days, and then penetrate the stem and completely drill it, causing the stem to die.

The fight against stem moths involves filing the plant with arsenic preparations, and it is very important not to miss the moment the caterpillars hatch, that is, the moment when they are still on the surface and have not penetrated into the interior of the stem. The stem moth produces several generations over the summer, so treatment of plants with arsenic preparations should be carried out several times, timing them to coincide with the hatching of the caterpillars.

A preventative method of combating stem moths is to keep the area and surrounding intersecting areas free of weeds. Especially in the fall, all dry remains of eriangus, gumai, wild sugar cane, reeds and other weeds damaged by common pests with sugar cane should be burned in the intergrowths and near the site. Soaking planting material for 24 hours is also useful in the fight against stem moths.

Ordinary poisoned baits made from corn are used against mole crickets.

Fall armyworm and wireworm can be controlled by introducing black fallow into sugarcane areas.

It should be noted that grade SR-28/19 is not damaged by the driller.

In tropical countries, sugar cane is affected by a number of diseases, namely: mosaic, rust, black rot, red rot, yellow spot, etc. In our conditions, these diseases do not exist. Only sporadic reed blight damage was observed in Denau, and some rust damage was noted in Termez.

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Sugarcane is a perennial, fairly tall herbaceous plant grown in subtropical and tropical regions to produce sucrose and other by-products of sugar production.

Description of culture

Sugarcane resembles bamboo in appearance. Its stems grow in small bunches, are cylindrical in shape and reach a height of up to seven meters with a thickness of one to eight centimeters. It is from the juice of the stems that sugar is obtained. At the nodes of each stem there are buds (eyes), which subsequently develop into small side shoots. They are used to propagate sugar cane using cuttings. Seeds are formed in the upper part of the inflorescences (in panicles). They are mainly used for breeding new types of reed and only in rare cases - in the form of seed material.

Sugarcane requires fertile soil, plenty of sun and water. That is why it is cultivated only in areas with a humid and hot climate. To obtain the maximum amount of sucrose from the stems (17 percent by weight), the crop is harvested immediately after the plant stops growing in height.

Production of sugar from cane

Sugarcane is the oldest cultivated crop and the only one from which sugar is produced in Africa, Oceania, Latin America and Asia. In Europe, sugar from sugar cane is obtained only in Portugal and Spain.

Traditionally, even today, in almost all countries where sugar cane grows, it is raw sugar that is processed and produced, and not the finished product. Basically, the purity of raw sugar reaches 98 percent. It is exported to Russia and other countries in the form of raw materials, from which granulated sugar is obtained.

Due to significant differences in the chemical composition and technological structure, the sugar cane processing process differs significantly from production

To obtain sugar from cane, its stems are cut before flowering. At this moment they contain up to 12 percent fiber, up to 21 percent sugar and up to 73 percent water, as well as proteins and salts.

Next, the cut stems are squeezed out and the juice is squeezed out of them using an iron fork. It contains about 0.03 percent protein, 0.1 percent starch, 0.22 percent nitrogen-containing substances, 0.29 percent salts (mostly organic acids), 18.36 percent sucrose, 81 percent water and a small percentage of aromatic components, which give the juice a special smell. To separate the proteins, freshly slaked lime is added to the raw juice and heated to 70 degrees. This mass is filtered and then brought to sugar crystallization by evaporation.

Sucrose: application

Sucrose (ordinary sugar) is a monoclinic, colorless crystal, highly soluble in water. It is found in large quantities in beets and cane, from which it is obtained through technical processing.

Sucrose is used directly as a food product or as part of various confectionery products. In high concentrations it is used as a preservative. In addition, sucrose is used in the chemical industry to produce butanol, glycerin, dextran, ethanol and citric acid.

Sucrose is also a fairly valuable raw material in the pharmaceutical industry in the manufacture of drugs.

In conclusion, I would like to note that sugar cane is the main raw material in the production of sucrose. It accounts for two-thirds of sugar produced worldwide.

Sugar cane(Saccharum) is a plant belonging to the grass family, or bluegrass (Gramineae, or Poaceae), the genus Saccharum, which is divided into five species: S. officinarum, S. sinense, S. berberi, S. spontaneum and S. robustum. If until now S. officinarum was predominantly grown for a long time, now varieties bred through targeted interspecific hybridization predominate.

A giant herbaceous plant with an underground rhizome; like corn, it has a massive stem with clearly defined nodes. The stems can reach a length of 6 m and a thickness of 2-5 cm, they come in green, yellow, brown or purple, and there are even striped forms. At the base of the stem, the nodes are located close to one another, while higher up, in the middle part of the stem, the length of its sections located between the nodes (the so-called internodes) is about 20 cm. Closer to the top of the stem, the internodes again become somewhat shorter. Above each node, a ring-shaped area is clearly visible, on which there is a bud protected by a scale and the rudiments of adventitious roots arranged in several circles; this area is called the root ring. Above it there is another ring-shaped section of tissue - the growth ring - consisting of cells capable of dividing (intercalary, or intercalary, meristem) and carrying out the growth of the internode in length. When reed lodging, the activity of this meristematic tissue can cause the stem to return to a vertical position. The assimilates formed in the leaves are stored in the form of sucrose in large parenchyma cells of the internal parts of the stem.

The leaves are 1-2 m long and 5-7 cm wide along the edges, finely toothed and, due to silica deposits, hard and sharp. Each leaf lives about 7.0 days. When planting stem cuttings, roots arranged in a circle are formed from the root primordia of the root ring; they intercept nutrients from the bud that has begun to develop until new roots develop from the lower nodes of the young shoot. In sugarcane, like all cereals, most of the root system is located in the upper layer of soil, only a few roots penetrate to a depth of approximately 1.5 m. The inflorescence of sugarcane is an abundantly branched panicle 70-90 cm long. Below the spikelets, located in pairs on the lateral axes there are long silky hairs sitting in a ring, which are longer than the spikelets themselves, and therefore the entire inflorescence appears fluffy. Since the resulting pollen is not always fertile, in other words, not always able to germinate, very few fruits are produced. If fertilization occurs, then after about three weeks the single-seeded fruits, grains, ripen. The intensity of sugarcane flowering depends on the variety; in addition, flowering in this typical short-day plant is suppressed as day length increases in growing areas away from the equator. Flowers and fruits are of interest only to breeders. When cultivating sugar cane for sugar production, flowering is undesirable, since flowering stems stop growing and become very lignified; In addition, the development of dormant buds in non-flowering specimens is associated with a progressive decrease in the sugar content in the stems.

From the area of ​​its origin, apparently limited to New Guinea and the adjacent islands, sugar cane already spread to India and China through the islands of the Malay Archipelago many millennia BC. In the Mediterranean region, sugar cane began to be grown around 600, and from the 16th century it also became known on the islands of the West Indies, Mexico and South America. Nowadays it can be found in areas lying approximately between 35° N. and 35° S. w. It is interesting that the areas of its cultivation almost do not coincide with the areas of sugar beet cultivation.

Although sugarcane is a typical tropical plant, its cultivation has expanded to areas where the growth and development of the plant cannot be completely completed, but the crop can be harvested depending on the temperature. Below 20°C, growth slows down very much, and at 15°C it stops altogether. The optimal temperature for growth is about 30°C. The average annual isotherm of 20°C should be considered the general limit of cultivation. Strong temperature fluctuations also have a negative impact on the development of sugar cane. At sub-zero temperatures the plant dies. Sugarcane is also very demanding of rainfall. Their annual quantity should not be lower than 1200 mm. Moreover, young plants need moderate rainfall, heavy rainfall during the main growth period, but towards the end of growth and during the period of sugar accumulation, as well as during harvesting, there should be as little rainfall as possible.

Sugar cane also places high demands on soil cultivation. The type of soil is not so important, although relatively heavy soils are preferable, but reed does not tolerate stagnant moisture. After thorough and deep tillage of the soil, furrows up to 45 cm deep are made in it, located at a distance of 1.40-1.80 m from one another, and cuttings cut from the stem are planted (laid) in them. The upper 2/3 of the stem, excluding the top, are most suitable for cuttings. Each cutting should have two or three buds. In extensive sugarcane cultivation, whole stalks are planted. With subsequent care of the plantings, the furrows are gradually filled up. Then, to promote tillering, hilling of young plants is carried out. A number of effective herbicides are now used to kill weeds in sugar cane plantings.

Sugarcane is a very common perennial crop, in which the crop is harvested over several years. However, without careful care of the soil and plants, as well as without abundant fertilizer, yields from perennial crops are often greatly reduced. As a rule, no more than three crops are harvested from the same planting. At the same time, there are also sugar cane plantings that have been used for over 10 years. Along with perennial crops, single use of plantings is also widespread.

The ripening of sugar cane, i.e. the best time for cutting it, occurs when the sugar content in the main tissue (parenchyma) of the internal parts of the stem is highest. As the plant grows, sucrose deposition occurs first in the lower part of the stem, and then higher and higher. The sucrose content in sugar cane (9-16°7o) is lower than in sugar beets.

Depending on the habitat conditions, sugar cane is cut 10-24 months after planting, unless its growth was prematurely interrupted by cold weather (this often happens in the subtropics). As before, manual labor is widely used during harvesting. Using powerful chopping knives, the stems are cut as low as possible, the leaves and green tops are removed, and the stems are dumped into heaps. For many years, attempts have been made to create machines suitable for harvesting sugar cane. Now there are sequentially operating (complementing one another) machines and combines, with the help of which, on flat and slightly hilly areas, un-logged reed can be cut and pre-processed to be sent to the factory. Unlike sugar beets, which can be stored, sugar cane must be processed no later than 24 hours after harvesting. Therefore, the amount of harvested cane must fully correspond to the production capacity of the factories processing it. With good development of sugar cane plantings, a large yield of its mass is obtained. Thus, in the Hawaiian Islands, after growing cane for 20-24 months, a harvest of up to 2300 c/ha is harvested. It can be assumed that the average worldwide cane yield is about 500 kg/ha per year.

By pressing the stems, juice is obtained. The resulting waste (remnants of stems) is called begassa; it is used as fuel in sugar production plants. But begass is also suitable for the production of paper, construction cardboard and a number of chemicals. Subsequent processing of cane juice is carried out using the same methods as the processing of sugar beet juice, and the refined sugar made from it does not differ from sugar obtained from beets. In small quantities, more or less hard brown sugar is produced from sugar cane, in addition to refined sugar. The method of its processing, used where the areas of cane cultivation are small, is very simple - the juice is squeezed out of the stems in simple mills; in this case only a little more than half of the juice is extracted. It is then evaporated on large open trays. The resulting product contains all the components of the original syrup and is therefore hygroscopic. In India, China, East Africa and the northern part of South America, brown sugar is very popular, which is not least due to its lower price than refined sugar. It should be noted that freshly squeezed sugarcane juice is a pleasant sweet drink; in the warmth it very soon begins to ferment.

Most of the world's table sugar is extracted from sugar cane, but it is notable that the ratio between the share of world sugar production from cane and the share of sugar from sugar beets is constantly changing. Despite the relatively lower sugar content in sugar cane than in sugar beets, when cultivating it from one hectare of field, the sugar yield is greater than when growing beets. This is explained by the fact that the mass of reed stems exceeds the mass of beet roots grown in the same area.