Study of Bud Emergence Characteristics and Seedling Growth of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) Cultivars on Different Planting Dates

Introduction: Management of agricultural operations in sugarcane fields should be informed by the accurate knowledge of sugarcane growth stages and phenology and is to be reviewed based on variety differences. Given the importance of emergence stage on the establishment of seedling and final quality and quantity of sugarcane yield and given the absence of respective information, a study was conducted to investigate the effect of different planting dates on the phenological characteristics of the seedling stage of sugarcane cultivars in the south of Khuzestan Province during 2016-17 and 2017-18. Materials and Methods: The experiment was carried out as a randomized complete block design with three replications. In terms of growth period length, Very premature, Premature, and Semi mature cultivars included CP73-21, CP57-614 and CP69-1062. Planting dates were Aug. 11 th , Aug. 23 rd , Sep. 1 st and Sep 11 th . Planting operation was conducted manually and with 1/3 overlap of grafts. In order to prevent the negative effects brought about by the dispersion and non-uniformity of the experimental field and the special conditions of sugarcane cultivation, each cultivar was cultivated in a separate field and after sampling and the study of different traits, the statistical analysis of each cultivar was performed separately. Results: The results showed that sugarcane seedling was not affected by annual conditions and the interaction effect of annual conditions and planting dates. The significant differences of planting dates were observed at the beginning of emergence, its completion and rate of emergence and the number of leaves produced and their area. The fastest rate of the beginning and the completion of emergence was obtained in CP73-21, and on different planting dates, it was more permanent than other cultivars studied, while CP69-1062 had the slowest and more behavioral diversity of emergence on different planting dates. The cultivar CP73-21 did not produce good results in terms of leaf area, but the CP69-1062 cultivar was able to produce the highest level of leaf area due to the extra number of leaves and the mean value of a single leaf area. In addition, the best results were obtained in all characteristics in August, followed by September. Conclusions: Based on the results, in order to achieve the best emergence of sugarcane buds, it is necessary to complete the cultivation of most of the fields within the first twenty days of the beginning of the planting season and priority should be given to cultivar CP69-1062 and then cultivars CP57-614 and CP73-21. Due to the differences between sugarcane cultivars, utilizing seedling stage growth data can lead to more scientific management of the crops in terms of the characteristics of each cultivar, which eventually leads to desirable yields.