1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
2Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Online published on 3 April, 2014.
A field trial on spring sugarcane was conducted on sandy loam soil, low in organic carbon at Ladhowal, Ludhiana for three consecutive years (2008–09 to 2010–11) to study the effects of sett size, seed rate and sett treatment techniques. Three sett sizes [single budded (B1), two budded (B2) and conventional three budded (B3) setts], two seed rates viz 75% of recommended i.e. 1,12,500 buds/ha (S1) and 100% of recommended seed rate i.e. 1,50,000 buds per ha (S2) and two sett treatment techniques i.e. treatment with carbendazim (0.1%) alone (T1) and alongwith 100 ppm gibberellic acid (GA3) for 15 minutes (T2) were evaluated in factorial RBD with three replications. The germination of single budded sett was adversely affected as compared to three budded sett. The tiller count, millable canes and cane yield of two and three budded setts were at par to each other and both were significantly better than the single budded sett. The increase in cane yield with two and three budded sett over single bud sett was 14.3% and 23.1% respectively. The tiller count, millable canes and cane yield were significantly reduced with 75% of the recommended seed rate (S1) than 100% of recommended seed rate (S2). Reduction in the recommended seed rate by 25% i.e. 1,12,500 buds/ha (S1) reduced cane yield by 13.9% as compared to the recommended 1,50,000 buds/ha (S2). Sett treatment with carbendazim (0.1%) + GA3 @ 100 ppm for 15 minutes (T2) had immense negative impact on germination. Seed rate and sett treatment did not have any effect on cane quality in terms of percentage of sucrose and commercial cane sugar (CCS) while the sett size of single bud recorded significantly lower cane quality than two and three budded setts.
Carbendazim, Gibbrellic acid, Seed rate, Sett size, Sett treatment, Sugarcane
