Effect of crop burning and harvest timing on growth of plant cane and ratoon cane tillers

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the College Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, during the rabi seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23. The experiment employed a randomized block design (RBD) with a factorial concept, comprising three factors: sugarcane variety (V1: Co 86032 and V2: CoN 13072), sugarcane burning treatment (B1: No burning and B2: Burning before harvesting), and harvesting time (H1: 11 months, H2: 12 months, H3: 13 months, H4: 14 months), resulting in sixteen treatment combinations replicated three times. Over two years, results indicated that the sugarcane varieties did not significantly influence growth attributes, such as emergence counts at 45 and 90 days after planting (DAP) or tiller numbers at 90 and 180 DAP. However, variety Co 86032 (V1) showed a significantly higher tiller count at 135 DAP. In contrast, variety CoN 13072 (V2) recorded significantly greater plant heights at 90, 180, and 270 DAP, as well as at all harvesting stages. The burning treatment did not significantly affect plant height, nor did the various treatments impact the number of ratoon tillers at 45 and 90 days after harvesting.