Some canes are thin and grassy and have a long black whip like dusty structure curling out from the top instead of normal leaves. Tillering is too much on those clumps. Is this smut?
A long black whip of dusty spores from the top of thin grassy canes with excessive thin tillering is sugarcane smut. The black dust is spores that spread on wind and on setts, so handle whips carefully. Before the whip bursts and dusts, cover it with a polythene bag, cut the whole affected clump with roots, bag it and destroy it away from the field, do not let the spores fly over healthy cane. Remove smutted clumps regularly through the season. There is no cure for an infected stool, so for the next crop use a resistant variety, take setts only from a disease free crop, and give the setts a recommended fungicide and hot water sett treatment. Avoid ratooning a smut affected field. Confirm the variety and sett treatment with your KVK or UAS Dharwad.
Bagging the whip before cutting it is the trick. Earlier I just chopped them and the spores went everywhere, next year smut was worse. Bag, cut, burn.
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