Background:

A study was conducted at the Territorial Sugar Cane Research Station (ETICA) in the mid-eastern Camagüey province, Cuba, to evaluate the effect of cultivar, stump, and planting distance between furrows for green biomass production, based on forage-production criteria.

Methods:

The plantation was made in February 2016. The experiment was established according to a categorical multifactorial experimental design 33 = 27, combinations on the base design, with two replicas, and 81 observations. Plantation distance between furrows (0.90, 1.20, and 1.50 m), cultivars (C97-366, C99-374, and My5514), and stumps (plant, shoot, and second shoot), were evaluated. The production of green biomass was determined at 12 months of age. A multifactorial variance analysis using Statgraphics Centurion, XV.I, was performed for statistical processing.

Results:

Statistically significant differences were detected in the interaction of stump with plantation distance between furrows, for the production of green biomass. The sugar cane stump planted at 0.90 m between furrows showed the best productive results, whereas no significant differences were found between cultivars.

Conclusions:

The genetic potential for green biomass production was corroborated by the new sugar cane forage cultivars C97-366 and C99-374, with values bove 60 t/ha-1, as the average of the three harvests.