[Syrupmakers] blue-ribbon sugar cane?

[Stacey Freeman]

Bill and Richard,
 
I am certainly not an expert or even very familiar with the different
varieties of cane.  I do remember hearing stories about "blue ribbon" cane
that "blue ribbon" is not a description of color as much as it was such a
good cane that at the county fair you would win or had won the "blue ribbon"
in the cane class (which we still have a class for cane in our county fair
and first place wins a blue ribbon).  I may have just muddied the water
though!
 
Take Care!
Stacey

  _____  

From: syrupmakers-bounces at syrupmakers.net
[mailto:syrupmakers-bounces at syrupmakers.net] On Behalf Of Bill Outlaw
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 5:50 AM
To: syrupmakers at syrupmakers.net
Subject: Re: [Syrupmakers] blue-ribbon sugar cane?


Thanks.  

I was given a small stalk of blue-ribbon cane in Aiken, South Carolina, a
couple of weeks ago.  It had no stripes.  I was a little surprised and had
guessed (my error) that blue-ribbon was a synonym for "heirloom" ribbon,
like you, Don Dean and others have.  I'll try to multiply the cane and see
what it looks like under my conditions.  Synonyms and common names are
monsters.  I hope other folks will chime in on this conversation to try to
get a definition of blue ribbon.

A couple of days later, I picked up a few stalks of a heirloom cane in
Lakeland, Florida.  It had been grown continuously by one family in Georgia
for several generations.  (James Robinson (~70) gave it to me and he knows
that it was the variety grown by his grandfather and thinks it was grown by
his great grandfather.  See Slide 45 of
http://www.southernmatters.com/sugarcane/operations-snapshots_31-45.htm   )
The stalks I got were small (it had been mowed in May and not tended to.)
but the color is like Georgia Red (whatever that is???).

On your other point, universities have essentially given up on pure
taxonomy.  With new emerging areas of science, hard choices have to be made
to accommodate modern expertise.  Of course, it is a matter of priorities
(about 20 taxonomists could be hired for the price of one football coach,
but it boils down to 1/3 of a university president's job being to provide
football for alumni.).  Fortunately, many amateurs (not novices) have picked
up the slack (e.g., Bill Petty, a retired state worker, is a local expert on
fungal identification and is called upon because Florida State doesn't have
an expert).  Perhaps this is a niche with sugar cane that you want to fill?
If I ever find the time, I will post diagnostic features.

Best wishes to all.

Bill


 

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