Effects of Residue from Harvested Green Cane on Evapotranspiration, Growth, and Development of Irrigated Sugarcane in Southern Brazil

Reported benefits of green cane trash blanket (GCTB) on the production of sugarcane include soil water retention, supplement nutrients, regulating temperature, and carbon accumulation in the soil. However, it is still uncertain the extent to which the irrigated sugarcane growth is influenced by GCTB. Thus, this study was aimed to analyze a four-year (from 2013 to 2016) irrigated field experiments by a center pivot system in Brazil to evaluate the effect of the transition from burnt-to-GCTB in terms of evapotranspiration, detailed crop development, growth measurements, and soil temperature changes. The experiment consisted of two treatments (bare soil and GCTB) with detailed soil moisture measured by frequency domain reflectometry (FDR), evapotranspiration measured at field level by Bowen ratio method, and evaluations of crop growth and development over the growing seasons. The result showed that the GCTB did not affect crop growth and development except for a few measurement dates in one season which experienced a severe regional drought. In the other growing seasons, however, the study did not show difference in crop evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and crop growth variables. However, the GCTB reduced the soil temperature and its variability as compared to the bare soil treatment in all four depths monitored during the study, which resulted in an average decrease by 4.9 °C in the GCTB treatment in the 0–0.40 m depth profile. Although the GCTB treatment did not increase the yield and ETc, the GTCB in second ratoon (dry year) showed more stalk.m −2 than bare soil probably due to the lower temperature caused by the sugarcane residue on the soil surface.