planting mine out this week. it’ll go along the shed where there’s a concrete foundation, lots of sun, heat and water runoff. I plan to dig some up up over winter in the greenhouse for a backup, and see how some does protected like a fig outside over the winter
They seem pretty amenable to being dug up and moved, and the one patch did quite well in the ground my greenhouse over the first half of winter, so I think they are a good candidate for overwintering in greenhouses.
Instead of digging mine up, I’m going to start a few cuttings every fall, taken from the first node above ground when I harvest. I’ll cover the “stubs” with mulch and maybe they’ll regrow after mild winters. I’ll plant the rooted new plants out in early summer, letting them get a jump start in the warmth of the greenhouse for spring.
If they don’t end up getting mature enough to be grown as an annual and harvested that way, I might keep them in pots for a year outdoors, overwinter in the greenhouse, and plant them out the next year. Basically what you did with yours, @resonanteye.
But regardless of whether it’s better to do them as annuals or biennials, I’ll probably keep growing them. The juice from those bottom couple segments was very tasty, much better than I’d feared it might be with our lack of heat units.
Decided I’m not going to do the sugar cane shuffle any more, they didn’t grow enough this season to be worth the effort. Maybe we’ll have a really mild winter and it will survive well enough to keep growing through next year… (unlikely)
Did yours ever get to stinking when they ferment or if you don’t cut them
I grew it in Colorado and stopped because at the end of the season, they stunk so bad when they started fermenting in late summer. I didn’t cut them down cause i had no idea what i was doing and had to get my husband to pull them out because of the flies and stench.
I have bought cuttings on two occasions and never gotten any to root. Flies on both occasions ate all the sugar pretty quickly. I’ll likely try again one day and just keep them inside under a ziploc bag “humidity dome”
The place where I got my cuttings originally sent an email this week saying they are updating inventory because lots of things got blown over in the hurricane and needed to be cut and sold now instead of later in winter, so now is probably a good time to buy it and root them indoors over the winter to get a head start:
I had 100% success with my cuttings from there, rooted them in soil in covered takeout containers on heating pads in my greenhouse and planted them once they started sprouting.
mine is taller than me, I did cut the largest cane. it was delicious at the thick base parts then gross and bitter up further along the pulp. replanted the bottom few nodes. entire plant will go in the ground inside the greenhouse soon, it’s still in grow bag, in there.