Effect of Certain Climatic Factors on Flowering of Sugarcane at Gurabo, Puerto Rico

Abstract

A large number of sugarcane varieties which are profuse or moderate tasselers under normal conditions at the Gurabo Agricultural Experiment Substation, failed to flower, or flowered abnormally during the 1967 blooming season. Observations proved that a high percentage of the tops of many varieties had not accumulated enough flowering stimulus to shift the vegetative meristem to the initiation of flowering. Other varieties did have flower initiation, but failed to develop into normal tassels. Quite a number of reversions of meristem and "bunch tops" were also observed. An examination of meteorological data indicated that the average maximum and minimum temperatures and their range during the flowering induction period of 1967, may have had some effect on the suppression of flowering. However, the principal factor responsible for the observed differences in flowering was probably the low soil moisture which resulted from the deficit in precipitation.