Black sugar cane

[Walter John 219]

I bought some of this yesterday, has anyone grown this plant ? Any tips/advice ?

[www.dadluvsu.com 277]

Never grown in but have been looking into it cause I like to eat evaporated cane juice in place of refined sugar. Since Florida is so heavily planted in cane as a cash crop the University of Florida's extension has a fairly descriptive article on culture...

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sc052

My guess is this stuff pretty much grows like a weed compared to the finicky things us palm lovers grow.

[Tyrone 2,659]

Got a picture Wal. This sounds very intriguing. I've never heard of it. I bet it looks awesome.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ariscott 48]

They are nice.. although can be a bit messy and out of control. You just have to clean it out every now and then. It is very fast growing and makes a good screen. I use it to screen my hills hoist...

Regards, Ari

[_Keith 772]

They are nice.. although can be a bit messy and out of control. You just have to clean it out every now and then. It is very fast growing and makes a good screen. I use it to screen my hills hoist...

Regards, Ari

Wal, this is sugar cane farmland here too. When I was small, the sugar cane was a dark purple color, nearly black. Could that be what is called "black" there? Today, the cane farmers all use modern hybrids, which are shorter, green, with many more stalks, higher sugar content. But the older purple cane is sold occaisionally, usually at country stores, for folks who want a taste of the past. Taste being literal. You can chew the old purple cane. The new stuff is hard as a rock.

[ariscott 48]

I have 2 different types, Keith... one with darkish purple cane and normal green/yellow leaves... and one with darkish purple and reddish leaves.. Not my cup of tea... but Scott likes it...

Regards, Ari

[Walter John 219]

I have 2 different types, Keith... one with darkish purple cane and normal green/yellow leaves... and one with darkish purple and reddish leaves.. Not my cup of tea... but Scott likes it...

Regards, Ari

The one I have is the first one you mentioned Ari, with dark cane and green leaves, that second one is known as Purple cane and ah, any sugars in your tea dear ?

[Walter John 219]

Here it is planted at the end of the shed receiving winter sun and holding out till Spring.

[_Keith 772]

I found this on Dave's Garden: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/33217/

Now you guys got me looking for some of this stuff.

[Walter John 219]

And now look what the black sugar cane has turned into after only 9 months. Highly recommend this plant as an addition to a tropical palmy garden.

a few angles here

[Tropicgardener 279]

Wal, your sugarcane is the variety 'Badila' which is one of the noble varieties that built the Queensland sugar industry. It was first imported in 1896 and was grown right up until mechanical harvesting took over from the cane cutters. It has one of the highest sugar contents of any sugarcane but the problem is that it gets smashed by mechanical harvesters and therefore is no good commercially anymore.

Just a bit of useless trivia for you !!!

[Manolitus 17]

And now look what the black sugar cane has turned into after only 9 months. Highly recommend this plant as an addition to a tropical palmy garden.

a few angles here

Wal,

This looks quite beautiful. But something tells me that when it grows up it will be quite "wildly." Are you going to eat it, or did you buy mostly for the aesthetics ?

Manny

[Walter John 219]

Wal,

This looks quite beautiful. But something tells me that when it grows up it will be quite "wildly." Are you going to eat it, or did you buy mostly for the aesthetics ?

Manny

A bit of both Manny, I'll cut and maintain the clump just like I aim to with the bamboo.

I've also got a clump of purple sugar cane happening as well, see below:

[Walter John 219]

Wal, your sugarcane is the variety 'Badila' which is one of the noble varieties that built the Queensland sugar industry. It was first imported in 1896 and was grown right up until mechanical harvesting took over from the cane cutters. It has one of the highest sugar contents of any sugarcane but the problem is that it gets smashed by mechanical harvesters and therefore is no good commercially anymore.

Just a bit of useless trivia for you !!!

No, that's not useless trivia, I love that kind of info, thanks.

[aussiearoids 368]

Wal, your sugarcane is the variety 'Badila' which is one of the noble varieties that built the Queensland sugar industry. It was first imported in 1896 and was grown right up until mechanical harvesting took over from the cane cutters. It has one of the highest sugar contents of any sugarcane but the problem is that it gets smashed by mechanical harvesters and therefore is no good commercially anymore.

Just a bit of useless trivia for you !!!

fantastic info Andrew seen a few lovely looking tall stands of this and it seems to stay very managable .

Appears to get propagules hanging off high up , for ease of propagattion , do you know if there are any 'rules'

against growing old cane varieties ? If you ask a Govt agencie they would make one up I am sure .

[ariscott 48]

I have a few growing.... although they did serve well as good screening plants, they got quite messy after a while. I think I might remove them & plant heliconia instead. I planted 1 and now I have 4.... The cane just dropped and layed itself down, hence it grew new plants - choking everything else in between. So, I think you have to clean it all the time to keep it under control.

Regards, Ari

[Tropicgardener 279]

Wal, your sugarcane is the variety 'Badila' which is one of the noble varieties that built the Queensland sugar industry. It was first imported in 1896 and was grown right up until mechanical harvesting took over from the cane cutters. It has one of the highest sugar contents of any sugarcane but the problem is that it gets smashed by mechanical harvesters and therefore is no good commercially anymore.

Just a bit of useless trivia for you !!!

fantastic info Andrew seen a few lovely looking tall stands of this and it seems to stay very managable .

Appears to get propagules hanging off high up , for ease of propagattion , do you know if there are any 'rules'

against growing old cane varieties ? If you ask a Govt agencie they would make one up I am sure .

Mick, yes apparently anybody living within the Queensland sugarcane catchment is not supposed to grow any of the old varieties. I actually grew 'Badila' in Cairns and when I moved to Bundy I took some there. I had a few comments from disgruntled canegrowers but I just ignored them but I also had some canegrowers ask me for some! It does develop plenty of propagules and is very easy to propagate that way, it also is really bad for 'Hairy Mary' and I always used when I cut it otherwise I would itch for ages! Apparently 'Badila' was first found growing wild in PNG before making it's way to Queensland. Great to know that people are still growing this variety.

[Patrick 245]

Wal, that 'Badila' is a real looker! I'm going to look into some of that myself...

I have the other one with the dark leaves- it's so tiny!- at my place now, but that Badila variety is very striking!