Sugar Cane is a 3-5 m tall tropical grass that produces most of the world sugar. Saccharum officinarum grows outdoors in tropical to warm mediterranean climates. Canes can be peeled and eaten at any moment, they are best after blooming. Sugar cane is very fast growing in hot summer weather, with abundant water and fertilize.
Cuttings are the best way to reproduce sugar cane, because they root easily and will give a plant exactly like the original mother plant. Reproduction from seed is much slower and it is only used experimentally in order to produce new cultivars.
The best rooting temperature is 20-30 C. Cuttings can be planted directly in soil or they can be rooted in water. New roots and new shoots will develop from the nodes: these are the dull-coloured rings present on each stem, formed as leaf-scars when old leaves fall off. Usually roots come first and then the buds wake up and form new primary shoots.
- In soil: use a fluffy, sandy, draining soil. You can do it in two ways: stick the cuttings upright, burying 2/3 or them in the soil mix, or place the cuttings horizontally underground, lightly buried for a few millimeters. Keep them moist.
- In water: put the cuttings upright in a tall glass filled with water. Roots will show up in one or two weeks. Move the rooting cuttings to soil after about one month from the start of the process.
Cuttings can be rooted in sun or shade. It does not matter, because during about one month the rooting plants will live at the expenses of the sugar stored in the stem. After this time, the rooted plants should be moved to full sun as soon as possible, so the canes will start to grow thick thanks to their own photosynthesis.