Assessment the Correlation and Heritability of Promising Sugarcane Varieties for Yield and Quality Attributes Affected by Pre-Harvest Irrigation Withholding Periods

This study aims to ascertain the effects of withholding irrigation period before harvest on sugarcane yield and quality characteristics and genetic variability. Two field trials were conducted at Kom Ombo Agricultural Research Station (latitude of 24.28°N and longitude of 32.57°E), Aswan Governorate, during the plant cane crop (2021/2022) and first ratoon crop (2022/2023) seasons to investigate the effects of the withholding irrigation periods (4, 6, and 8 weeks) before the harvest date on some promising sugarcane varieties' yield and juice quality. The experiment was set up in a split-plot trial in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The findings showed that, with the exception of purity, reducing sugars, and fibers, all the investigated characteristics were significantly impacted by the withholding of irrigation periods prior to harvest. In addition, the best cane and sugar yields would be obtained by withholding the irrigation period at 4 weeks before harvest compared to others. In both seasons, when compared to other varieties, the promising sugarcane varieties G.T. 54-9 and G.2005-47 varieties had the highest values for yield traits. All traits under study had heritability estimates above 80% in both seasons, except sucrose %, sugar recovery %, and reducing sugar %. The majority of traits showed strong relationships with sugar and cane yields. High genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) as well as broad-sense heritability for sugar and cane yields. This work suggested when sugarcane irrigation should be stopped four weeks before harvest to optimize the maximum cane and sugar yields/fed.