Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => GARDENING AROUND THE HOUSE => Topic started by: GSF on October 01, 2013, 09:50:37 pm
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It's October the 1st, still not to late to plant your sugar cane in central Alabama - whole stalks not seeds.
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gary, i wish i had seen this back in october. i had planned on planting some and forgot.
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I planted some last year and had my first harvest. What a trip down memory lane. I plan to attempt to make some sugar from it however I saw or read somewhere that the cane to make sugar can only be grown in far south Florida. We'll see.
I debark it, then split it about four way and take it to work with me in my cooler. When I'm out and about I'll grab some and chew it.
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Don't believe that I am in Baton Rouge and the sugar cane harvesting season is in full swing. The planting may not go much further north past I10 but defrinitly further than south Florida
Keith
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interesting. is it temperatures, day length or soil conditions that would stop us from growing it here or something else?
a green house with a couple of metal halides would solve a couple of those problems.
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I'm guessing it's to do with the length of the growing season.
Keith, I live about 35 miles north of Montgomery Al. I'm told that about 25 miles north of me is too far to grow any. Mine done well last year.
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im not sure what it is but 25 miles north of I10 in LA is where it cuts off. for those that don't know that's about where the bottom of the boot connects with the top of the boot in Louisiana
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im not sure what it is but 25 miles north of I10 in LA is where it cuts off. for those that don't know that's about where the bottom of the boot connects with the top of the boot in Louisiana
i drove to houston back in march. i've driven through about half the states and that has to be the worst stretch of highway on the u.s. i don't know much about la. but is that maybe where the coastal plains end?
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This is going to sound silly but why grow sugarcane when you have honeybees?
Just because you can? Not knocking it, I'm curious.
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hjon, I started growing it for a couple of reasons. One reason is because it's a trip down memory lane. Growing up in the sixties and seventies we didn't have a lot of store bought candy. Everybody, and I mean everybody was money poor. For our sweets we had apples, sugar cane, grapes, water melons, plums, peaches, and so on.
Another reason is I would like to try my hand at making my own sugar. However, I have recently read that our growing season isn't long or tropical enough for that strain of sugar cane. I will attempt to prove them wrong if I can get me a press around here.
And last but not least, I like eating it :-D
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How do you plant it? Do you just take a full stalk and bury it laying down or do you cut each section and then bury them? How deep, how far apart.
Thanks in advance,
Jim
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I plant a full stalk about 4 inches deep and about 6 to 8 inches apart. Having only one growing season under my belt I don't know if that's right or not. If a stalk is real crooked I'll cut it at the bend(s) and try to keep a straight line.
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Thanks, I plan on planting it in my wife's garden
Jim
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gary, i'm with you. sugar cane was a treat.
i want to try to make sugar too. i also want to make my own "paint thinner" using it.
i also don't like the taste of honey in coffee for some reason.
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im not sure what it is but 25 miles north of I10 in LA is where it cuts off. for those that don't know that's about where the bottom of the boot connects with the top of the boot in Louisiana
i drove to houston back in march. i've driven through about half the states and that has to be the worst stretch of highway on the u.s. i don't know much about la. but is that maybe where the coastal plains end?
I agree and very deadly. Long boring stretches of rice and sugar cane fields
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My grandkids sure liked the cane Kind Mr. Farmer sent me. I guess it is out of the question growing it here as next three days are supposed to be well below zero day and night.
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Just noticed yesterday I had some shoots from last years sugar cane. I haven't seen anything from what I planted last fall.
love me some sugar cane.
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don't know about sugar cane . does it make molasses? knew a family that grew some kind of cane . had a squeezer, press, ran by mule power. they made molasses every year. gave a pint to my dad when it was done . this was in south Missouri about 40 miles from Arkansas. this was about 1942
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hivebuilder; it makes cane syrup, is that the same?
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gary, this has been stuck in my brain since you started the thread. how did it do?
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Hey Rob, the sugar cane done pretty good. I haven't had a chance to do the sugar thing. In the future, 2, 3, 4, years I'm going to fence in a bottom in the front field. A friend of mine planted some in the 70's a few hundred yards up in the same bottom. He said you never seen the like of sugar cane. He made good money off of it too. 10 cents a stalk, you pick.
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i expect you can get more than a dime for it these days
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He was getting either 50 cents or a dollar towards the end. I'm thinking the stalks I bought were about $2 apiece. I had some type of borer worm get in a few of my stalks. It's still quite the learning experience for me. Like apples. Growing up we had apple trees and I don't remember the birds being an issue. My young trees probably made 3 or 4 dozen this year. I watched through out the summer as one after one were being eaten through by birds. I finally got my busy but out there and put screen wire around the last 3 or 4 apples I had left.
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I've planted my first patch of sugar cane this past April. I'm about 20 mile north of Columbus, GA so we're about equal as to how far north we are. I planted mine in April because I was cautioned that the stalks may not survive the winter if planted last fall. Anyway was just wondering if you watered during the summer and if you did how often? I didn't water and the stalks were short and not much juice as it should have been. Just starting a new project with cane growing. I may set up a mill and kettle but want the cane growing figured out first.
One more question, what type of sugar cane are you growing?
Bellcow
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Welcome Bell.
This will be my second year with sugar cane. I plant mine in the fall. I didn't water mine hardly any last summer and I should have. Overall the stalks didn't get as thick or as tall as they did the year before. I've heard both ways on planting, in addition I've heard bed them up in straw/hay so the knots will come out on the stalks.
I have at least three different types. I'm sure one is blue ribbon because it's a pretty dark blue looking color. Another is lite blueish green, and the other is just green. I buy them at an area where lots of produce farmer/yard sellers met. If I was told the names I don't remember them. I let the cold get to mine this year so I didn't get to enjoy it nearly as much as I should have. My plan was to plant this harvest in the bottom of the front pasture but we haven't goten hardly any rain since around the second week in August and the ground is like concrete. I was re-planting some of my stalks and I dug up some stalks I planted last fall. They still looked good and fresh. They had just a little roots but no growth/sprouts.
The state of Alabama, Dept of Agriculture, has a paper that comes out about every month. It's called the Alabama Farmers and Consumer's bulletin. There's a sugar cane/syrup making bunch that advertises in there. Sort of like a bee club/association. Maybe Georgia has the same publication with a different name.
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Most things that I have read say plant in the fall but I spoke to someone in east Georgia and he said I might better plant in the spring being how far north I was. Now I'm beginning to think it may not really matter. I know it was grown around here years ago. I planted red cane and I'll try to plant some green cane next.
Here in Georgia we have the Market Bulletin put out by the ga. Department of Ag. The site/paper has a section with cane for sale. Most cane growers are way south of me.
My cane turned out ok but just might try to figure out a way to put some water on it. What about fertilizer? I was told I needed to use a tobacco fertilizer. If I can remember it was 4-8-14 or something like that. The ticket is in a file out at my barn but I think this is right. Some growers say tobacco fertilizer some say it doesn't matter.
By the way Elmore Co. is nice. Have spent some time around there a few years back.
Bellcow
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Bell, 10framer isn't that far from you. He might have an idea on who to check with on growing/fertilizing it. I just had the impression it was
in the grass family and nitro sodium would be what it craved the most. I usually use triple 8 or 13 which ever is the oldest in the shed.
If you're fooling with bees I suggest you update your profile and put your location down. A lot of bee questions are location specific and require location specific answers.
glad to have you aboard.
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I was thinking it was just in the grass family also but some will only use tobacco fertilizers. I've got a contact down south about Moultrie Ga. and that was what he recommended. I was asking because different soils may need different "types" of fertilizer. I may plant another small section of red cane and use triple 13 and see what the difference in taste is.
I have 8 hives of bees also, so thanks for pointing out my location info. I didn't mean to omit that. I don't know where the hopelessly lost came from. I do understand that knowing someone's location makes a big difference on advice when it comes to bees and plants.
Bellcow
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bell, i know my way around ellerslie pretty well.
i got my seed cane from a guy in dublin. it's blue something or other if i remember right.
the guy i got it from is in his 80's and he said you only need to water it about 3 times a year. he said you want to plant it on a hill in sandy soil. seems like ellerslie had a lot of red clay if i remember right.
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I would love to plant sugarcane. Not gonna work in New Yuck though. What is the growing season? If I ever build a greenhouse it might be fun to try.
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Eric, I'm going off memory so it's probably wrong, I'm thinking my sugar cane started coming up in March. Compared to corn/peas it's a slow grower. I should have harvested in September. My thinking on your part is you can probably grow it but it may not get as tall. Last year my canes were taller. The harvest part of the canes was around five foot.
Shoot, give it a try. Experience sometimes triumphs the written word.
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There is usually snow on the ground here in March. The ground is usually frozen... A few years ago we had a very mild winter and I planted cold weather plants on March 15. Then we had a hard freeze and I had to replant. Even peas, broccoli, and Swiss chard doesn't survive weather in the low teens.
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Yes 10framer lots of red clay hills around here. Cane can be grown down in bottom areas if you can find a place. I'm just trying to have me a small patch just to learn something new. I remember some old timers talking about growing sugar cane years ago around here when I was young.
What would bring you to Ellerslie? Not much here.
Bellcow
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my dad used to work for sonat, i think it's el paso now. before the housing crash i sold material out there now and then. i promise you there is more there now than when i lived there.
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I planted some in red clay, didn't see much difference. Could be that I've been adding organic materials to it for a while now. Leaves, hay, chicken & goat poop.
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10framer, I used to work for Sonat. Started in 1980 retired 2007 all of it at Ellerslie c/s. I'm Gilbert Andrews. Thats where I picked up the nickname "Bellcow".
Bellcow
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bill hardy was my dad.
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Hey 10framer. I remember when you lived at the station. I enjoyed working for your dad. Those were the good old days at SNG.
I do have a lot of clay In my soil but the low area has more moisture than up on the hills. I plan to try to set up a way to water nextyear.
Bellcow
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the old man i bought my seed cane from says to plant in sandy soil on a hill and that you should only have to water it a few times a year around here. he also said not to plant it in black dirt.
a lot of guys that worked for dad tell a different story. grady ivey told me a story about them running underground lines at the auburn station and dad only rented the trencher for half a day and they ended up digging a lot by hand. he described him as "thrifty".
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Grady would have rented for the week and only use it one day. We installed 3 yard lights while your dad was there. The lights were on steel poles and bolted to a concrete base. Your dad had grady order the concrete. Grady called for a full truck. Didn't need but about 2 yards maybe less. Your dad never knew that.
The fellow you got your seed cane from may be the same guy I talked to about year or so ago. The guy from dublin. He recommend not planting till the spring in my area.
Bellcow
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i didn't know grady worked in ellerslie. i remember leo being there.
yeah, ray freeman is his name. he's up in his 80's and he's a talker. i'l probably buy a cane mill from him next year if mine does any good.
did you get much honey this year? i did pretty good in the spring but they didn't make anything off of the goldenrod over this way this year.
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Grady didn't transfer to ellerslie but he was in and out of there on a regular basis one summer. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week.
Ray Freeman sounds right. I had called about some cane in january and he said to call back the first of march when he would uncover his beds. When I called the first of march he said that the cane froze and wasn't any good. So I found a guy in Moultrie.
I did have two supers that I could have robbed but I had used the checkmite strips in the beetle traps so I couldn't take the honey. Was Still learning how to handle shb. I think I've got shb taken care of now.
Bellcow
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i didn't do anything for the beetles this year. strong hives seem to solve that problem. the only thing i've ever done for mites is forced brood breaks.
ray showed me a bed he says he has gotten 4000 stalks a year out of for ten years that only put out 1000 this year.
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I have gone to oil trays under the hives now. Seems to work good. From what I've learned from a few others in the area my shb problem may have been minimal. If there is such a thing with shb. I only killed 2 beetles at the most in hives that had them when I would do an inspection. I was talking to a friend that said he killed 100 in his hive during an inspection. I didn't see any during my last inspection.
Bellcow
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What I've been hearing around here is that the SHB weren't really a big problem this year. This is my second summer keeping bees so I really don't have a lot to compare to. However, since I put oil pans under my hives I have a lot less shb's than before.