QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF FLOWERING BEHAVIOUR IN SUGARCANE

Abstract

Relationship between flowering behaviour and sugar yields was investigated in 48 local and exotic sugarcane accessions grown in replicated trials over four cropping stages in a typical Guinea Savannah ecology. Significant genotypic differences were observed among the flowering (F) clones for all parameters investigated while the nonflowering (NF) clones differed only for cane yield, sucrose content and millable cane population/plot.

Trend in productivity of clones revealed that there was no relationship between either period or extent of flowering and cane yield as some of the clones which flowered profusely yielded significantly higher than sparsely flowering clones regardless of the period of flowering.

Differences in cane yield between F and NF clones were 0.4, 324, 0.64 and 4.08 t/ha respectively in each of the harvest stages while differences in sucrose content were negligible. However, much of the observed variability for cane yield was due to the F clones with the mid and late flowering types contributing 43.4 and 42.7 percent respectively. Thus, genes for high cane yield in these two sub-groups could be introgressed in to future varieties.