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Post by blackox on Mar 4, 2015 19:25:38 GMT -5
Although I usually think of it as something that only grows in the tropics, from what I've gathered from the reading that I've done it sounds like it might be able to be grown as an annual crop. Am I right in thinking that? If it can be grown as an annual, about how long on average do the plants take to produce seed? It's really just another one of those "because why not?" crops that I'm toying with the idea of growing - a crop for fun, If I wanted to I could probably just process the syrup-types of sorghum and use them to make sugar. I've found a source for sugar cane seed of a mixed genetic base.
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Post by steev on Mar 4, 2015 21:02:12 GMT -5
A neighbor here in Oakland had a clump that she harvested canes from for several years; I think she planted a rootable section; I never noticed it blooming; I suppose she cut the canes before they could.
So I have no idea how big it could get from seed as an annual, but if protected from cold, it's perennial, it seems.
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Post by 12540dumont on Mar 5, 2015 1:36:36 GMT -5
I've always wanted to do the sorghum too. Except for when I looked up the price of a sorghum crusher...ouch.
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 5, 2015 9:33:02 GMT -5
You might want to look into trying to find a sugar cane sub type called ribbon cane. While a true sugar cane, it is a bit more tolerant of cool and cold weather than most of the others (tolerant enough to allow a small but significant sugar and syrup production industry to exist in Louisiana)As I understand it, it doesn't grow as big or heavily as most of the tropical ones (or part of why their sugar is cheaper) but if you are planning to work on a small scale personal level, it should probably be adequate enough.
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Post by reed on Mar 5, 2015 19:50:27 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure you can grow it as an annual. Sand Hill Preservation offers it and sent me a gift package with my seed order this year, so I will find out for sure. The kind they gave me is called Texicoa, their web site says it is a grain type. They also have sweet kinds, I would rather had one of those but it was a gift, I'll plant it.
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Post by steev on Mar 5, 2015 22:12:10 GMT -5
Holly, you could crush cane on a cement surface, properly configured so as to drain into a catch-basin, with your truck; works for husking black walnuts, too, though you'd not want to do both on the same surface, I suppose.
Just checked up on that Texicoa and it's a sorghum, not sugarcane, so certainly an annual.
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Post by reed on Mar 8, 2015 7:48:12 GMT -5
Ha, shows what I know, I thought they were the same thing. Sugar cane makes sugar, sorghum makes molasses. Unless it is the grain kind like what I got. Like you would ever get grain from it, a cloud of Gold Finches maybe but not grain.
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Post by blackox on Mar 10, 2015 18:41:09 GMT -5
After a bit of research it seems like the way that it is usually grown is through rooted stem section. This is another one of those crops that's usually not grown through seed and has poor biodiversity as a result. 12540dumont That's the exact reason why I didn't buy a cane crusher either. I've seen wooden frames with those syrup-funnels (what Steev is referring to catch basins? Live in big sugar maple area, should know this) in which you could insert an iron rod to act as a lever , and crush them manually. So that might be another option. There are probably a few corn varieties out there that could be used for syrup as well as the sugar cane and sorghum. |
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 10, 2015 19:01:15 GMT -5
Ha, shows what I know, I thought they were the same thing. Sugar cane makes sugar, sorghum makes molasses. Unless it is the grain kind like what I got. Like you would ever get grain from it, a cloud of Gold Finches maybe but not grain. Technically, molasses comes from both. There IS such a thing as sorghum molasses which is a byproduct of making sorghum syrup (like Karo) . But most molasses is also sugar cane. Certainly, all of the molasses used to make rum is. Or why the lyrics of the calypso song "Bimini" go "I'm anchored here by ball and chain, Squeezin' the rum from sugar cane." Though because I am a pedant I will point out that you couldn't actually do that directly. If you ferment sugar cane juice itself, instead of molasses, you don't get rum, you get either Cachaça (if you are in Brazil), Aguardiente (if you are in most of the rest of South America, and the Spanish speaking parts of the Caribbean, or Arrak (if you are in the East Indies or the English speaking part of the Caribbean. |
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Post by reed on Mar 11, 2015 5:58:58 GMT -5
Well now you got me thinking. If there is sugar in it, it should ferment, if it ferments you can distill it. I wonder if there is enough sugar in sorghum for that. Actually it turns out I found a bag of some old seeds that just says 'honey drip", I don't know where it came from but I think I might have two kinds.
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