Self-sufficient-farm diary #4: Sugarcane

Todays topic will be how I planted sugarcane. Another really easy-to-cultivate plant with a great variety of usages.

A few weeks ago, we tried growing fodder beet but we did not have any success with those. They did not even germinate. I figuered the best way the reuse it was by planting sugarcane. It truly is an amazing plant! The most common use probably is making sugar, which we definitly look forward to doing. But it also has other uses. We will use it secondary for feeding animals. They will absolutely love it. Also it is a nice snack in between while working. You can just jew on a bit of a stalk and it will taste sweet. It has other benefits, like making paper, which we probably will not use. But if you are interested, I advice you to do your research on sugarcane. It is a great ecological plant.

Sugarcane likes loads and loads of water, but also a good drainage for best yields. But my neighbor, who has some experience in growing sugarcane, told me, that it is really easy and should grow nearly everywehere here in Costa Rica.

It likes much water in the beginning after beeing planted, a lot in the growing phase and at the end a dry period. The dry period helps storing the most amount of sugar in the stalks. With about 10°N we are in the tropics, meaning that it should be planted from June to August. Sugarcane grows four to ten month until harvest.

The soil was prepared the same way described in this post, where I wrote on how I planted pineapples.

Since the field was already prepared, I only needed to do some weeding. Our neighbor grows some sugarcane and was eager to gift use some. Ticos (people from Costa Rica) truly are special people. They are really generous.

If you have the option, you should choose the strongest and best looking plants. They also will produce strong plants.

I dug about 10cm deep trenches with about 30cm distance between them.

The way to reproduce sugarcane is easy. All you need is an existing plant. Usually only the top third is used for reproduction, but since it is the beginning of a field, I used the whole plant. You remove all the leaves and then cut them into pieces of three or four "eyes". "Eyes" are called the marks along the stalk where it looks separated. From each eye, there will grow a new plant.

The last step was to put the dirt back on the cane and wait - as so often. This time about two to four weeks until the tips show themselves. Once I see the baby plants coming from the soil, I will put mowed grass around them as a weed-prevention.

Sadly for most of you guys probably, it does not like freezing temperatures and does not grow well below 20°C (68°F). It even stops its growth completely below 15°C (50°F). But if you are able to grow it whereever you live, it will be a great addition to your ecological garden:)