The Effects of Herbicides, Pesticides, and .
Fertilizers on Sugarcane and its Sugar Yields.
Sugarcane is a very important cash crop in South Louisiana. Many people as well as the economy in the state depend on this crop. With this on the mind of the sugarcane farmer, it is very important for him to make sure that the crop is productive. One of the major parts in making a crop productive is by applying many chemicals to the crop throughout the year. These chemicals consist of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers. Each one is applied at different intervals throughout the year depending on the stage of growth of the sugarcane and the pest that grow with it. It is important to catch these pest before they get to far into their stages of growth.
The pest that infest a sugarcane crop range from weeds to insects. Weeds that infest the crop are mostly Johnson grass and tie vine. Johnson grass is a weed that is in the same family as sugarcane. It competes with the sugarcane for growing space so therefore can cause the crop to have less tons per acre as the grass makes the sugarcane have less plants per square acre. Tie vine is a vine that spreads very rapidly over the tops of the cane. This causes the cane to suffer from less sunlight and it stunts the growth of the crop. This also causes the sucrose to be less because the photosynthesis process is a lot slower without the sunlight. Sucrose is the actual sugar that is produced by the cane. When the sucrose is lowered, the farmer does not make as much money and a lower average of sugar harvested from the crop is hurt greatly. All of this is controlled by applying herbicides to the crop in the early stages of the crop.
Insects that infest a sugarcane crop are commonly called sugarcane bores. Bores are insects that dig themselves deep into the core of the plant. These insects therefore live and breed inside the plant and then spread rapidly. Farmers make routine field checks to control the spread of these insects.