Re: red sugar

There are a few clumps of sugar cane to be found in
the Chinatown section of Oakland, California, where
the climate is distinctly cool. I wonder what variety
that might be. No, it's not corn or Arundo donax.
-Jason Dewees
San Francisco

--- Tony and Moira Ryan <tomory@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> 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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