New Energy Cane Varieties in Florida.

The development of carbon-neutral energy sources has become one of the primary challenges of the twenty-first century. Perennial grasses such as energy cane have been proposed as feedstocks for lignocellulosic ethanol or direct combustion. The potential of energy canes for energy production from cellulosic ethanol or direct combustion is high, however seed cane material for multiplication is limited. Current energy cane breeding strategies have focused on selecting high biomass hybrids from wide crosses between commercial sugarcane varieties and one of several species within the Saccharum family, primarily S. spontaneum, which is characterized by high stalk populations, high fiber content, excellent ratooning ability, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. To improve genetic diversity in energy cane, a cooperative energy cane selection program was established in 2007 between the University of Florida (UF) and USDA-ARS Sugarcane Field Station, Canal Point (CP) to produce high-yielding, disease-resistant energy cane germplasm. Based on multi-location and multi-year yield, disease, and fiber component data, we have released five new energycane varieties: UFCP 74-1010, UFCP 78-1013, UFCP 82-1655, UFCP 84-1047, and UFCP 87-0053. The released varieties have very low susceptibility to natural smut infection compared to the commercial check, L79-1002. Overall, the released varieties had 0.6–1.7 smut whips/10m² compared to 26.3 smut whips in L79-1002 under natural conditions, and there was no significant difference among the released varieties. The artificial lab inoculation data also indicate lower smut susceptibility (11-17.6% infection) in the released varieties than L 79-1002 (37.8% infection) as well as smut susceptible sugarcane variety, CP 78-1628 (41.6% infection). In mineral soils, the overall cumulative (plant cane through ratoons) dry biomass yields of the released varieties ranked higher than L 79-1002. There was no significant difference in fiber composition of the released varieties and the reference check. The released varieties are public releases and are intended to cultivate on mineral soils of Florida.