A Study on Character Association under Different time of Sowing and Harvesting in Sugarcane (Saccharum Officinarum L.)

The character association analysis was conducted on a set of 20 sugarcane varieties grown in two sowing dates i.e. in the month of March and April and two harvesting stages (10 and 12 months) in plant cane and their ratoon during two years. The cane yield showed significant and positive associations with number of shoots/ha, number of millable cane/ha, stalk weight/cane, and CCS/ha at 10 and 12 months stage and March and April sown planted cane and their ratoon crops. The genetypic correlation coefficients were generally In the same direction as phenotypte correlation coefficient but with higher magnitude, Further, correlation and path coefficient analysis identified number of mllliable cane/ha, single cane weight, cane height and cane thickness as the most important characters associated with or contributing to cane and commercial cane sugar yield and the sucrose and CCS present for sugar recovery.