Whole clumps of cane are drying, leaves yellowing from the top. When I split the cane the inside is red with white crosswise patches and a sour alcohol smell. Spreading fast. UP. What do I do?
Red internal tissue with white crosswise patches across the pith and a sour fermented smell is the signature of red rot, the most serious sugarcane disease. There is no spray that cures an infected cane, so the strategy is containment and never replanting it. Dig out and remove affected clumps with roots and destroy them away from the field, do not feed the setts or leave them on bunds. Do not take seed setts from any red rot affected field. Stop water flowing from sick patches to healthy ones, since irrigation water carries the fungus. For the next crop the only durable fix is a resistant variety recommended for your zone, since susceptible ones like the old Co 0238 collapsed to this, plus healthy three bud setts treated with a recommended fungicide and hot water or sett treatment. Confirm the variety to switch to with your sugar mill cane department or UP Council of Sugarcane Research, Shahjahanpur.
Once red rot enters the field, ratoon also gets it. I had to skip ratoon, remove everything and change to the resistant variety the mill recommended. Painful but it stopped the spread.
Never take seed from a field that had even a little red rot. That is how it travelled into my plot, I took setts from a neighbour cheaply and regretted it.
Our mill cane department gave us a list of resistant varieties when Co 0238 collapsed here. Switching, plus hot water treated three bud setts from a clean nursery, is what finally controlled it across the village.
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