Three New Promising Highly Productive Sugarcane Clones for Farming and the Industry

Context: At present, high-potential agricultural and industrial sugarcane clones are critical at the beginning of the harvest to replace the cultivars that have reduced their productivity after years of exploitation and resistance to the major pests and diseases that attack the crop.

Aim: To evaluate the agro-industrial potential of three new promising sugarcane clones in dryland.

Methods: A randomized experimental block design with five treatments and three replicas was used. The treatments were three promising clones (C13-369, C13-370 and C13-383), and two commercial cultivars (C86-12 y C1051-73) used as controls. The agro-botanical characteristics and crop yields, along with the juice quality parameters at the beginning of the harvest (December), at 12 months of plant’s age.

Results: Clones C13-383 and C13-370 demonstrated a better performance than the controls, reaching higher crop yields than 195 t ha^-1 of millable sugarcane, and 30 t Pol ha^-1. The crop yields of C13-369 (164.48 t sugarcane t ha^-1) and industrial yields (25.53 t Pol ha^-1) were similar to cultivar C86-12 and higher than C1051-73.

Conclusions: The three promising clones have a high genetic potential for sugar production, confirming its possible use as early-maturation cultivars to be harvested at the beginning of production.