Re: red sugar

John MacGregor wrote:

on 11/24/03 11:26 PM, Bruce Peters at bruce@brucepeters.com wrote:



When you say 'red sugar' are you talking about what I call purple? Often
goes under names such as Pele's Smoke?


Yes, that's what I have been talking about.  I am presuming that was the
object of Nan's query.



If so, in Mission Hills in San Diego
where it's often rather frigid in winter (well, upper 40's at night) both
the variegated green and the purple grow fantastically!


In Pasadena it often gets to the lower thirties at night, and most years it
drops into the upper- or mid-twenties at least once or twice.  That is what
it doesn't like.  Although it has managed to survive, it is getting smaller
every  year.  The clump has not multiplied much, and it was only about 4-5
feet tall this year.
Hi
This talk of sugar canes I find most interesting, as the farm on which I was raised in Kenya had an irrigated area along its river planted with cane (for making sugar not for ornament). Though close to the Equator we didn't have quite the typical climate as we lived at an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet on the escarpment climbing up to the Rift Valley. However it certainly never got down to freezing even in the coldest weather. I am not sure of our lower limit, but doubt it was much below 45F on the very coldest nights (summer day temps at their highest probably never over 90 F)..

The variety we grew was called Uba, but where it came from I am not sure. It was a rather thin cane of no ornamental value and though quite rich in sucrose did not give outstanding yields. It was known as an upland cane and was considered to be the only one suited to our area, which was well outside the normal one where the crop was grown (on the lowland around Lake Victoria nearly two hundred miles to the west of us).

However one year the Dept of Agriculture made available a series of West Indian varieties for growers to try and my Pa thought he would have a go. I just remember these (I would have been around 8 at the time). They were monsters both in height and stoutness beside our poor little Uba and I remember at least one having a red or purple stem. Alas though, they didn't like our climate and died out after a season or two leaving the Uba still in possession.

Seing the talk of flowering (or not flowering) in America reminds me of a peculiarity of cane which made them a very awkward crop, they had an unusually long growth cycle and could only be harvested at 18 month intervals. Perhaps this characteristic would make their flowering somewhat problematical in the garden.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ. Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm

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