Modelling the water content of the sugarcane stalk
2001
Martiné, Jean-François | Lebret, Pascal
In most countries where sugarcane is grown, the industry uses cane yield and sucrose content expressed on a fresh weight basis. It is therefore important to be able to estimate the stalk water content. This study models the amount of water stored in the millable stalk as a function of the dry weight of the stalk structures and of the stored sucrose. The correlation was highly significant (r=0.98, n=30). Structural material was equated to the difference between the stalk total dry weight and sucrose. Knowing the effect of the water deficit on the water content of the cane, the deficits were compared with the residuals in the above regression and it was shown that the use of the soil water deficit did not improve the relationship found. To explain this, the results were used from studies of biomass and soil water deficit during periods of soil drying and re-wetting. They showed that the relative variations of structural material and sucrose already took account of the soil water deficit and that these variables are therefore sufficient to explain the quantity of water stored in the stalk. Thus the sucrose content of cane and the yield can be estimated directly as a function of the cane dry weight and sucrose produced. (Résumé d'auteur)
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