Evaluation of Planting Methods on Crop Performance and Cost Effectiveness in Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.)

The experiment was conducted during eksali of 2017, 2018 and 2020 at Agricultural Research Station, Basanthpur, Sangareddy, Telangana in red laterite loamy soils. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and 7 planting methods viz., ridge and furrow method with 3 budded setts (P1), single node planted by seedling transplanter (P2), direct planting of bud chips (P3), direct planting of seedlings manually (P4), seedling transplanting by transplanter (P5), planting with cutter planter (P6) and farmers practice (P7). Pooled mean of three years data indicated that the tiller count at 75 and 120 DAS (102.8 and 189.1 ‘000ha), cane height (306.7 cm), no. of millable canes (104’000 ha), single cane weight (1.67 kg) and cane yield (138.9 t ha-1) registered were significantly highest in direct planting of seedlings.