OPERATION: PLANT MORE SUGARCANE

[@CatherineandRob]

Amazing looking cane varieties!

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

i know right! we are so lucky to be able to work with such beautiful genetics! so many interesting plants around, you just gotta find them and hold on!

[@casalleblas2079]

Your videos are super cool!!! I like the practical stuff and your explanations are also verry clear to mee:)

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

thanks so much! thatʻs wonderful feedback, itʻs great to hear we are reaching people! we will keep on posting!

[@casalleblas2079]

Jess! I live in Amsterdam, and i am sooo jelous of all those tropical spiecies:) i would really like to experience it in person! Were are you located, if i may ask:)

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

I'm sure you have wonderful plants around you as well! It's a bit hard not to be envious of other areas, even for us. I love peaches, but we can't really grow them here. Give and take! Im in hawai'i

[@casalleblas2079]

Jes, i agree, te forest is always greener at your neighbours:) I will be trying peaches here, but why can 't you grow them:) i did like to know:) They do like sun and moisture, and you do have those...

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

they also need some cold to set fruits! we dont have enough cold. theres one or two cultivars worth trying, so we will try them when we can get our hands on them. but they dont really want to be in our climate

[@SirCavernon]

I'm working on an agroforestry project in Benin, Africa, and I was wondering how well could do sugarcane with a vine growing on it. I'm specifically thinking of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), as it wouldn't constrain the plant or grow tall enough to shade the adult canes. But I have not a lot of experience working with sugarcane, so any input would be great :)

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

I wouldn't personally grow vines on sugarcane. They like to flop out ward as is. So putting the extra weight will pull them down. Also the vines will outgrow them and make it to the top before they can put out leaves. Most likely effectively killing the canes. They need as much sun as possible. It also takes our varieties about a year before they are making solid canes Pigeon pea is a bush, not a vine. In my experience pigeon pea grows too large to combine too closely to sugarcane. If they're spaced 2 meters it would be fine though

[@GrowAllTheFruits]

Sugarcane is absolutely amazing. The amount of calories it produces for such little effort is hard to beat.

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

One of the hardest working plants around!

[@bloodlove93]

if i recall correctly it's also a type of grass right? similar to how bamboo is it's also a short life perrenial(just my term idk) where you can cut it each year for 3-6 years on average and it'll regrow fairly similarly throughout those years given the same care and similar conditions and experience, ergo weather,disaster,etc. if it is then once dead and dried should (potentially) be treated like a dried grass product for animal feed,like a hay replacement. maybe even shredded and mixed into either a silage or a slurry for feed pellets.

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

@@bloodlove93 it is indeed a grass, but its not as perennial as bamboo. it could live 10 years if managed well. but i would replant around 5 years. after the first year you can begin to harvest canes. you can cut the whole clump down, but its quite taxing on the plant. so better to remove a couple of canes rather than the whole thing. ive never heard of anyone using it as a feed substitute once processed. i know of people feeding it directly to cows and pigs. but not processing it down

[@nolanbrooks1588]

Would you mind adding what region / state your in and How many acres / hectares you are working with? It would be nice for context 😊

[@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie]

We have two acres but only work one currently. Im on a pacific island

[@NolanBrooks-v6e]

@@tropicagroforestryspencerjulie Thank you sir, I appreciate you getting back to me