• Choosing appropriate season for growing sugarcane is an essential step to raise a successful crop. An ideal climate for sugarcane should have two distinct weather conditions viz. a growing season which is long and warm with adequate rainfall or irrigation, long hours of bright sunshine and higher relative humidity which permit rapid growth to build up adequate yield; and a ripening season of around 2-3 months duration having warm days, clear skies, cool nights and relatively a dry weather without any rainfall, for build up of sugar.
• The sugarcane productivity and juice quality are profoundly influenced by weather parameters during the various growth phases of cane. The dry period with very less rainfall and low humidity and a lower daily mean temperature are favourable for higher sugar accumulation.
• In Tamil Nadu, the mean temperatures throughout the year are more favourable for vegetative growth and thus the yields are the highest in the country.

• The main planting season extends from November to April, much of the planting taking place between January and March.
• There are also pockets where plantings are done during June -August and harvested after 10 -11 months. These are known as special season plantings, mainly practiced to avoid flowering problem and to meet the crushing needs of the late period. Summer planting in late March and April extending upto May is becoming a common feature.
• The concept of early planting during October-November is considered useful. The October planted crop would give higher yields and better quality than the crop planted during April -May. This planting programme if accompanied by early crushing, starting from October, would result in better sugar recoveries as compared to late summer crushing. October harvested crop also would give better ratoons. There could be no or less shoot borer problem.

• Sugarcane is a vegetatively propagated crop. The seed material used are the stem cuttings known as "setts", each having one or several eye buds. In Tamil Nadu two-eye bud setts are recommended.

• Using quality seed is highly important to establish a good initial stand and thus to ensure a good crop. The setts should be obtained from disease and pest free seed crops of around eight months.
• Good quality setts should have healthy buds, higher moisture content, adequate nutrients, highest amounts of reducing sugars and, must be free from pests and diseases.
• Seed material should be fresh and each node should have one healthy bud. The seed cane should be free from aerial roots and splits. Also, mixtures should be avoided.

• It is desirable to take only the top one-third or two-thirds of the stalk for preparing setts. Because the top portion will contain healthy buds, more moisture, nutrients and relatively less mature and thus has more reducing sugars. In the bottom portion, the buds are over-aged, may be damaged and infested with pest or diseases.
• Whenever setts are obtained from plant crops, proper seed selection and seed treatment are necessary. Avoid crops which are raised from originally heat treated seeds. Setts should not be drawn from a ratoon crop, a disease or pest infected crop, or from a crop grown under stress condition such as salinity, alkalinity, waterlogging or drought.

• A sugarcane crop raised exclusively for seed purpose is known as a 'short crop'. The short crop is usually harvested at around 8 months. In the case of short crop, entire stalk can be used for preparing setts, discarding only the bottom most buds.

• Sugarcane setts are commonly prepared manually in India. For this, seed canes from nursery crops are harvested at appropriate age. The trash and green leaves are hand stripped to avoid damage to the buds.
• The setts with either two or three eye buds are cut using a sharp knife placing the cane on a small wooden log. The cuts should be slanting. Multiple cuts must be avoided to safeguard the buds and avoid splits in the setts.
• It is desirable to prepare the setts just before planting, may be a day before. Also, it is desirable to transport the seed cane unstripped to the field to be planted and then prepare the setts to avoid damage to the buds while handling and transport.
• Setts may also be prepared by using a sett cutting machine. The Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow has developed a sett cutting machine. The machine can cut 12,000 number of setts per hour with the assistance of four labourers.

• Soil borne disease causing microbes, usually fungi, gain entry into the setts through the cut ends following planting. This leads to sett rotting and damage to buds and thus failure of germination. The sett rot occurs mainly due to pineapple disease. Therefore to guard against such diseases, sett treatment using a fungicide is absolutely essential.
• For sett treatment 'Carbendazim', a systemic fungicide is currently recommended. A 0.1 percent solution(1g / litre) is recommended. The setts should be dipped in the solution for about 5 minutes. A half drum can be used for preparing the solution. Sett treatment should be done soon after cutting.
• Most sugarcane farmers do not treat the setts before planting. This is why in most cases, germination is only around 40 percent. A germination of about 60 percent can be easily achieved by sett treatment which is quite simple and cheap.

• Three important diseases are carried forward through seeds. They are ratoon stunting disease (RSD), grassy shoot disease (GSD) and smut. Elimination of these diseases and raising healthy nursery crops should be an important acitivity of any sugar factory. This is done through a practice widely known as 'three-tier' nursery prgramme, viz.,primary nursery, commercial nursery and planting.
• The seed-borne diseases are eliminated through heat treatment (heat therapy) and heat setts are planted for multiplication and then planted in large scale nurseries known as "commercial nurseries" from which sugarcane setts are supplied to the farmers for commercial planting.

• Heat therapy is done either by hot water, hot air, moist hot air or through aerated steam treatment.

• Under hot water system, water is heated to 50 degree C and sugarcane are treated for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

• Dry heat is produced through electric heaters placed at different points in the heating chamber. A reversed exhaust fan maintains air circulation. With hot air, the secondary nursery and commercial nursery time taken is 8 hours at 58 degree C. By injecting steam into the chamber, moist hot air treatment is achieved. In this case the treatment is at 54 degree C for 4 hours. This system is highly useful to eliminate smut infected buds.

• Steam is generated by heating water in a chamber. This steam is led to another chamber where it is mixed with air in the proportion 1:4. This aerated steam is fed to the treating chamber through minute holes. The treatment is at 50 degree C for 1 hour.
• The heat treated setts are not directly used for commercial planting. They must pass through various multiplication stages and should be grown in commercial nurseries from where seed canes or setts are supplied to the farmers for large scale commercial planting.

• Sugarcane is generally planted manually.

• In the finely prepared field, ridges and furrows are formed manually or by using tractor-drawn or bullock-drawn ridgers.The spacing followed ranges from 60 to 135 cm between the rows. The most common spacing is 90 cm. Closer spacing (60 -75 cm) is desirable for early varieties, short duration varieties and shy tillering varieties and, under poor soil fertility status and adverse growing conditions like moisture stress or limited irrigation, soil and water salinity, excess moisture or waterlogging and late (summer) planting.
• Wider row spacing (100-120cm) is advisable under high fertility conditions with good irrigation facility and for long duration and high tillering varieties.
• Depth of furrow should be around 25 cm. Convenient furrow length depending upon the sope must be followed. However a furrow length of 10-15 metre is ideal when guided irrigation is followed.
• Drainage channels which are deeper than the furrows and the irrigation channels, should be opened along with field borders as well as within the field at regular intervals. Drainage channels are particularly important in the highly irrigated areas such as canal irrigated tracts where excess irrigation is usually done.
• The ridges and furrows is the most ideal system of planting under highly irrigated sugarcane cultivation. The system facilitates easy irrigation, provides good soil aeration and solid support to the plant when proper earthing up is done.

• In this system deep trenches of depth 30-45 cm and width 60cm are dug out manually at a spacing of 120 cm between the centres of two adjacent trenches. The gap between the trenches is 60 cm.
• Sugarcane setts are planted on either side of the trench bottom and covered with soil lightly. As the cane grows, the trench is filled with the soil with each manuring.
• Finally, a small trench is formed in between two sets of paired rows which serves as a drainage channel to remove excess water during the north-east monsoon rains.
• This system is found ideal for early drought and late waterlogged conditions of coastal Tamil Nadu. In the initial stage, because the setts are planted deep in the moist soil zone, they get adequate soil moisture and thus established.
• The trenches formed later on, are useful to drain out excess soil moisture during the ripening phase of the crop. This system is highly labour intensive. But the system gives higher cane yield.

• In the paired row system, two cane rows are brought together followed by a wide gap before the next set of two rows. The paired rows may be at 60 cm with 120 cm gap. In this method the number of rows per hectare remains same.
• The advantages are that wide spacing is available between any two setts of paired rows which can be utilised for growing profitable intercrops. Also good earthing up is possible so that lodging could be checked. The system also permits better light interception by the crop and thus can give higher yields.

• Under normal conditions, ridges and furrows method is easy and most useful. In this system, first basal manures -usually phosphatic fertilizer is placed in the furrow bottom and mixed slightly with the soil. Then treated setts are placed either in end-to-end or in an over-lapping fashion.
• 'End-to end' placement of setts is followed when the seed rate is lower and the internodal length of the variety is shorter. The 'over-lapping' type of sett placement is followed if the setts have longer internodes and seed rate is higher.
• Then the setts are covered with soil and irrigated. This type of planting is known as 'dry planting'. This is followed in light soils.
• In heavy clay soils, the furrows are irrigated first and the furrow bottom soil is brought to a more or less puddled condition and then setts are pressed down the soil. This method is known as "wet method".
• At the time of planting care should be taken to plant the setts in such a way that the buds are facing the sides.

• Using disease free healthy setts obtained from a nursery crop.
• Using two eye bud setts instead of 3 eye bud setts.
• Careful preparation of setts without damaging the buds or setts.
• Planting freshly prepared and treated setts.
• Giving light and frequent irrigation during the germination phase.
• Trash mulching under moisture stress and hot weather and late planted condition.
• Control of weeds through pre-emergence herbicides.
• Seed treatment using a fungicide.

• Under normal planting, if the quality of the setts is good, about 60,000 two-bud setts or 40,000 three-bud setts would be sufficient to plant an hectare of land and raise a good crop. Higher seed rate is preferred particularly under moisture stress, salinity and waterlogging conditions.

• Earthing up operations are done in two to three stages. The first earthing-up is known as 'partial earthing-up' and the second operation is 'full earthing-up'.
• The partial earthing-up is done after first top dressing essentially to cover the manure and to provide anchorage to the freshly developing shoot roots.
• Soil from either side of the furrow is slightly taken and placed over the fertilizer band when done manually.
• Full earthing-up is done after the final manuring, which is usually done at 90 - 120 days coinciding with the peak tiller population stage.
• During full earthing-up the soil from the ridge in between is fully removed and placed near the cane on either side. This operation could be done either manually or by using a bullock-drawn ridger.
• Earthing up at 3 -4 month stage checks further tillering, provides sufficient soil volume for further root growth, promotes better soil aeration and provides a sound support or anchorage to the crop thus preventing lodging.
• Earthing up is also done at around 6 months when a stable cane population has been established. This is helpful to prevent lodging, improve soil aeration and help prevent late shoot or water shoot formation.
• Earthing up operation in general helps control weeds by mechanically destroying them.

• Detrashing helps to maintain a clean field.
• It provides easy movement of air within the crop canopy.
• Provides an ideal micro-climatic condition for unrestricted growth of cane.
• By detrashing, the bud sprouting problem could be overcome.
• A detrashed crop is easier to harvest.
• The detrashed trash can be mulched by keeping them in the furrows as a moisture conservation technique. or, it can be removed and used for composting.
• Detrashing of cane and high level earthing up during 7th month ensures higher cane yield.

• Lodging of sugarcane is a serious problem in many sugarcane growing areas, particularly in the coastal belt where high velocity winds during monsoon is very common.

• Cane breakage and thus loss of stalk number at harvest (and thus loss of cane yield)
• Infestation of certain pests and disease causing microbes through lodged and damaged canes
• Damage by rats, rodents
• Bud sprouting leading reduced cane quality
• Aerial root formation which also affects cane quality
• Difficulty in irrigation and harvesting.

• Heavy earthing
• Trash-twist propping
• Paired row planting with good earthing up of the paired rows and propping the paired rows and
• Deep trench planting. Potassium nutrition is known to give lodging resistance to sugarcane.

• Water shoots are the late formed tillers or side shoots which are robust and fast growing. They originate mainly due to plentiful supply of water, inadequate earthing up, and late manuring.
• Water shoots affect the growth of adjacent stalks. They harbour insect pests and when they are harvested and sent to mill for crushing, lead to reduced juice quality and affect sugar recoveries.
• Therefore it is advisable to remove water shoots as and when they arise. The water shoots can be used as cattle feed.

• In commercial sugarcane production, flowering is not desirable. Once flowering occurs, usually vegetative growth stops and the cane starts ripening. Non-flowering or shy flowering varieties should be used in areas where flowering is a serious problem.

Sugarcane provides considerable scope for intercropping short duration crops and thus improve overall productivity and profitability to the farmer.

The initial growth of sugarcane is slow and it takes about 90 to 120 days for complete canopy closure.

During this period, we can profitably exploit the three valuable natural resources (radiant energy, soil and space) by growing intercrops.

• Effective use of production resources.
• Additional income. Inhibiting quite effectively the problem of weeds.
• Leguminous intercrops would help fix atmospheric nitrogen and thus may help sugarcane by enriching the soil.
• Many of the intercrops could help in opening the soil and thus improving soil structure.

• Reduced tillering of sugarcane leading to an average of 10 percent cane yield loss.
• Possible draining of nutrients and water if no additional supply provision is made.

• Short duration of around 3 to 4 months.
• Less competitive to sugarcane.
• Less-branching, non-shading and non-brushy.
• The input requirement should not be too different from sugarcane. Should not attract more pests and diseases.
• Among the intercrops, blackgram proves better with a net return of Rs.2.63 for one rupee invested The cropping sequence of sugarcane - sugarcane ratoon -blackgram- paddy is more beneficial.
• Growing of crops in 3 years rotation in the sequence of sugarcane plant + sugarcane ratoon + groundnut, green manure and paddy results in higher profits.
• Modified system of planting soybean as intercrop on the sides of the ridges is also found to beneficial.