Variation in Growth, Physiology, and Yield of Six Sugarcane Cultivars from across the Globe in Florida.

Evaluation of sugarcane cultivars with diverse genetic background under similar location can help in better understanding cultivar response to environment and in identifying various physiological traits that could lead to improved yields. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth, yield, and physiological responses of sugarcane cultivars from across the globe on organic soils in Florida, as part of the International Consortium of Sugarcane Modeler’s project on modeling worldwide genotype x environment interaction. Field trials were established at the Everglades Research and Education Centre in Belle Glade, Florida in 2013 to collect data for plant cane and first-ratoon cane crops. Six sugarcane cultivars from various sugarcane-growing regions of the world (CP 88-1762, HoCP 96-540, Q183, R570, N41, and NCo376) were established in a randomized complete block design with four replications. In plant and first-ratoon cane, R570 showed slowest emergence and lowest shoot populations in early phases of growth. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index showed lower values in R570, NCo376, and N41 and higher values in Q183, CP 88-1762, and HoCP 96-540 during the early growing season in plant cane. Cultivars showed variation in all physiological parameters throughout the season, with Q183 and R570 showing greatest while HoCP 96-540 the lowest transpiration efficiency in plant cane, owing to the difference in their photosynthetic rates. In plant cane, CP 88-1762 had highest cane and sucrose yield which were significantly greater than HoCP 96-540 and HoCP 96-540, N41, and NCo376, respectively. However, in first-ratoon, cane yield did not differ between cultivars (P<0.05) while sucrose yield was greater in CP88-1762 compared to N41. Results indicated the presence of variability among various parameters in the cultivars used in this study. This dataset will be used to calibrate and validate various sugarcane models (e.g. CANEGRO) to evaluate their ability to simulate genotype by environment interactions.