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Title: HOCP 96-540, A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK?

Author
item Dufrene, Edwis
item Tew, Thomas

Submitted to: American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/22/2003
Publication Date: 6/1/2004
Citation: Dufrene Jr, E.O., Tew, T.L. 2004. Hocp 96-540, A chip off the old block?. [abstract]. Journal of the American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists. 24:82-83.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, The Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station of the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, and the American Sugarcane League of the U.S.A., Inc., working cooperatively to develop improved sugarcane cultivars, have jointly evaluated and released the new cultivar, HoCP 96-540, for commercial planting in the spring of 2003. HoCP 96-540 is a progeny of the cross LCP 86-454 x LCP 85-384 made at Canal Point (CP) Florida in 1991 and selected at Houma (Ho), Louisiana, in 1993. The cultivar has a moderate to high population of medium-sized stalks that turn amber when exposed to sunlight. Similar to LCP 85-384, HoCP 96-540 is an exceptionally good ratooning variety. HoCP 96-540 is erect in growth habit, and well suited to mechanical harvesting. HoCP 96-540 is a mid-maturing high sucrose cultivar that produces levels of recoverable sugar per ton of cane and fiber content comparable to those of LCP 85-384. Yield data from a total of 58 mechanically harvested, replicated yield trials on both light- and heavy textured soils indicate that HoCP 96-540 consistently produces cane per hectare and sugar per hectare that are 10-15% greater than LCP 85-384 in plant, first-ratoon and second-ratoon crops. With greater stalk erectness and lower sheath adherence to the stalk at harvest than LCP 85-384, yield losses associated with mechanical harvesting HoCP 96-540 are expected to be reduced. HoCP 96-504 appears to be as cold tolerant and as responsive to the ripener Polado as LCP85-384. HoCP 96-540 is resistant to sugarcane mosaic virus (strains A, B, and D) and sorghum mosaic virus (strains H, I, and M). The cultivar is resistant to smut (Ustilago scitaminea Sydow), rust (Puccinia melanocephala H. And P. Syd.), and leaf scald [Xanthomonas albilineans (Ashby) Dowson] diseases under natural field infection conditions. Similar to essentially all sugarcane cultivars released in Louisiana, HoCP 96-540 may sustain significant reductions in yields of total recoverable sugar and cane in ratoon crops from ratoon stunting disease (Clavibacter xyli subsp. xyli). Based on field observations where it has been increased, HoCP 96-540 does not appear to be any more susceptible to the sugarcane yellowleaf virus and commonly used herbicides than current commercially grown cultivars. HoCP 96-540 is susceptible to the sugarcane borer [Diatraea saccharalis (F.)] and should not be grown in areas were insecticides cannot be applied.