I live in Trinidad 🇹🇹 (Caribbean) sugar cane loves water….. if you give the sugar cane a lot of water it will grow fatter and softer canes. If shoots as a thin cane it will remain thin (not fatten later) if it shoots fat oooo you are in for a treat. Mother encouraged chewing the canes as it (fibers) cleans your teeth from plague ….. sometime you chew tooo much and your teeth can start to edge (SQUEAKY CLEAN LOL) ….. I can goo onnn and onnn mate… but this comment would be too …. Long (pun intended)
My dad was a North Texas farm boy. (During the Great Depression) One of their cash crops was sugar cane, or rather the cooked down syrup from sugar cane. His family had a farm that was not irrigated, so they were considered dry land farmers. Their primary cash crops were sugar cane, peanuts & dent corn. The farmers in the local area depended upon itinerant sugar cane processors. They had the equipment to squeeze the juice from the sugar cane crops & the farmers cooked it down into syrup. The guys who squeezed the sugar cane traveled from town to town, processing the sugar cane, taking a share of the finished syrup as payment for their services. The squeezed sugar canes were then fed to the livestock. Nothing was wasted. Then, of course, they had their kitchen garden where they grew crops to feed the family. (Corn, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, beans, squash, etc) They also raised hogs as a cash crop. So, they had hogs, chickens, a couple of milk cows & mules to pull the plow. My siblings & I grew up hearing stories about life on a dry land farm during the Great Depression. No electricity, no running water, no irrigation, etc. My dad was the youngest child. Because of that he never had a new pair of shoes or new clothing until he outgrew his two older brothers & their hand-me-downs at the age of 16. I grew up gnawing on partially peeled sugar cane sticks. It was sold in grocery stores in foot long segments. We considered it quite a treat.
This is a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. My family also came from a poor farming background 2 generations ago, unfortunately my parents Decided to be city folk and became university professors and doctors. But now I'm going back to my farming roots by growing all kinds of veggies and keeping chickens. Love growing stuff. Plus, it's really good for the soul. And sugar cane is very well known in China too so it'll once again be like a blast from the past for me.
For gardeners who want to grow their own sweeteners but live in a zone that is too cold for sugar cane, they might want to try growing sorghum. Sorghum can be grown in colder climates because they have a shorter 'days to maturity' (life cycle) than sugar cane. Sorghum can be squeezed for the sweet juice that is then cooked down to a syrup. Also, sorghum produces edible seeds that can be ground into a gluten free flour to be used for pancakes & some baked goods & can also be popped like popcorn. Another alternative would be to grow sugar beets. The best beets to use for sugar production are the white beets. They are sweeter & not as earthy tasting as red beets. (Beet root, for you guys from the British Empire...) Another alternative would be to take up bee keeping.
@@GeomancerHTread somewhere that the Japanese process hydrangea flowers to make a naturally sweet tea. Maybe this tea can then be freezedried into a powder sweetener.
When I was living in India, I was traveling (via train and bus - that is fun!) I was getting sicker, (it was BAD). The bus made a stop at one point to pick up more people (yes, the bus was already full), I looked out the window and a man was handing out Sugar cane juice. I am telling you, it was what my body needed to get itself strong enough till I arrived at my location. sugar cane juice is amazing!!!
The description of India, I remember it well, everything you're describing! But no one thought to offer me sugar cane juice and I had no idea either. That's great!
@@bellowyelly Sugar was first cultivated in India , Europeans wanted to reach India due to its products …..they got to know there are grass in India which is sweet . Sugar comes from Sanskrit word sharkara, and candy from Sanskrit word Kalkand crystallized sugar. When they eventually got hands to the knowledge they brought African slaves and indentured labors from India and Asia to grow in other colonies ….free knowledge, free resource , free labor any theif can become rich overnight
It might be worth to mention that some varieties of green sugarcane also have tiny hairs that might get into your skin and be very painful/bothersome so using gloves is a must. I learnt this from my neighbors dad as he used to grow lots of sugarcane for sale. 🙏🏽
As a child (in the 40's) our Florida home property was divided by informal sugar cane "hedges". I still delight in the memory of spontaneously chewing on canes!
I remember in '15 when I went to Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico and I noticed the sugar for the coffee was huge, tinted cubes. My sister in law showed me the plants in her backyard with the poinsettias and lime trees. My other sister in law made a drink with fresh caramel and the sugarcane and milk to sell. That was 100% better than a Starbucks Latte 😅 They also had fresh, unprocessed milk so my sister in law made yogurt everyday w/fresh fruit from the market. ❤ Too much processed stuff here in the city. 😢
I remember when my dad would buy a small stalk of sugar cane and cut it up for all us girls to try. For those who live in the northern US, there is a variety that can tolerate our climate (to 6a) it is called Saccharum arundinaceum. I am so excited to see if I can find any next spring to start growing it.❤
Unfortunately while that variety is technically a sugar cane, it really doesn't really produce any sugar. It is often grown for fiber but has no value for sugar.
We occasionally chewed on raw sugar cane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when I was a kid- 1970's. We also ate raw coconut - expending more calories to open them than we could possibly consume.
Sugarcane needs care too. To get bigger thicker canes, you remove older or dried leaves further down the canes. You then tie them or stake them to each other so they grow taller. I'm from Papua New Guinea. Over here, we peel the cane with our teeth, bite off chunks, chew and suck the juice out of the cane.
Quando eu era criança, nós primos e primas se juntavam ao redor de fogueiras a noite, torcendo e chupando esse Suco maravilhoso , de gomos de cana! Tbm faziam se os melaços pra comerem no café da manhã, com farinha de milho branca. Quão saudáveis éramos!! Maravilha!
I'm from Trinidad but live in California. I grew up eating sugarcane and loved it. Fast forward to present day life in California where we have 2 sugarcane patches successfully growing. Even introduced it to my neighbor and they love it. Thanks for the video highlighting the sugarcane and it's many uses😊
My daddy grew this when I was a boy. He would cut joints of it, peel it and we absolutely loved to chew on it. I helped each year to plant it. Sometimes he would save the eyelets and we would plant those with the shoot facing up, sometimes if he had stalks that were drying up that we hadn't chewed he would make a furrow and lay the entire stalk in it and cover with soil, no need to cut , saving time. Thanks for the video, it certainly took me back 50 years to my childhood in East Texas 😊
Okay I’m getting a sugar cane bed to screen the neighbour’s backyard. Love your work Mark. When you sung at the beginning it melted my heart 😂 always lovely to see your face!
I have a small plot of sugarcane. Bought a couple canes from a local grocery store and put it in the ground. Growing great. Im in far southwest AZ, and its hot here.
@teasandtreasures8692 Yes, sugar cane can be grown in Phoenix. From what I understand, sugar cane likes temperatures of 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures get over 100 degrees F use shade cloths over the sugar cane. I use shade cloth for many plants when temperatures get over 100 degrees F. There is plenty of information on the Internet on how to grow sugar cane in Phoenix ( and other places) and many many sites to buy sugar cane cuttings.
@@jrg4313 thanks for the information I will look it up I've not had much luck out here with this heat. The past few Summers I've lost several rose bushes and rose trees, also some citrus trees it's been really hard on the plants.
Big 👍here from someone who has stopped consuming refined sugar completely! I intend to cook my own jaggery or molasses and better yet grow my own sugarcane in my backyard 😁
Just chewed a foot long sugar cane stick this afternoon. Brings a lot of memories 35 yrs ago in a rural place in Philippines. The variety we have has bigger stalks and has a purple redish skin. Just plant it a sunny place and it will grow crazy fast...
We grow it in our gardens in Dallas, Texas. It provides the perfect amount of dappled shade for our tomatoes and other plants during the scorching summer heat
In the early to mid 60’s I chewed a lot of sugar cane. My uncle grew a small patch of it just for me, and we’d take it home after visiting in the summer. Our local fruit stand sold stalks for 5¢ or 10¢. The downside was this was an outdoor treat because it was messy, and mama wouldn’t always let me take one of her knives out.
Step zero: Don't live in the UK :( EDIT: Yes, I am aware there are alternatives. I know you can juice corn stalks, grow sugar beets etc. This is a joke comment. Those sugar alternatives are also less cost effective than buying sugar, and the end result isn't as pure and tends to have an after taste. For every 1KG of sugar beet you grow, you will get around 100-150g of sugar.
@@melissahansen6199 Depending on how long your seasons are, you might be able to do what I'm doing this year, which is growing "sorghum". I'm testing it out this season to see how it works out, but once you take the grain from the top, you can apparently juice the stems and do a boil and get decent quality syrup. They call it the "pancake plant" in the south of the US, because it makes both the flour and syrup at once. Might be worth a shot? If you want good grain, grow the white variety, if you want good syrup, grow the black one.
You can grow it here with great difficulty but it's not really worth it, pineapples however are very fun to grow in the UK and i would highly recommend trying it.
We grow both on our farm in Thailand. I much prefer the purples over the greens. Great for chewing on and excellent additions for Mojitos...Fresh limes from our trees, mint from the garden, cane sugar syrup, and a purple cane stick to stir....along with the rum and soda of course. Magic on a hot day.
Back in the 50s I lived in Conway, South Carolina. I was an Air Force brat so we did not have a farm, but I had local friends who would bring sugar cane to school. It was quite a treat and a fond memory for me.
You can make piloncillo/panela with sugar cane. It is a very strong and rich sweetener, while still being completely natural In México we love to make Café de Olla with it
Great video. Here in Brazil we love sugarcane juice, called "Garapa" in some places, and organic sugar, syrup and the sweet bricks called "Rapadura" are also very popular products made from sugarcane.
@@roidroid Maybe there is a link between these words since Garapa is a relatively new word and the origin is not known. It could be a coincidence but it sounds like it was a misspelling of Grappa.
I LOVE that the Grow a Ton series is still on-going! Please make more of these, maybe about some herbs, that's been a while. Or a ton of green onions. Cheers from Germany!
I bought some sugarcane and planted them along my fenceline for shelter from the weather, as I live in cold Melbourne🥶 they are looking green and healthy at the moment. Fingers crossed I’ll get them in summer to eat🤞 You answered my questions about feeding them. Thank you for sharing as usual 👍
Hi Mark, fellow Aussie here. This is great! Thanks. 👏 I recently did a video about using sugar cane mulch in the veggie garden, but noting the downside was the expensive cost per bag (where I am anyway). Someone commented that you just made a video on growing it and that I should try to grow it myself to use as mulch. What a great idea. I think I will give it a go. Thanks Mark. - Kelly 👍
As a kid in Florida during the mid 60's & 70's, we would go down to Hollywood FL each winter to see our Gramps & Gram. We would always stop at the Sugar Cane fields for freshly harvested canes and Cane syrup.. We always knew when we saw the smoke from them burning the fields that they were open for business. There is nothing like fresh Sugar Cane . What Great memories.
Howdy Mark, I watch all your videos and want to grow everything on our homestead. This year has been our best year so far for the garden. We might have grown enough onions to be self sufficient on onions until next year harvest. Even with something cheap to buy onions it is a great feeling knowing we were able to grow enough to provide for ourself. Keep up the great work. Semper Fi
I get the big bales of Australian sugar cane mulch from Bunnings - it's awesome. It breaks down into the soil within 18 months. Only problems are it can get hydrophobic if you lay it on too thick, and when it's dry it's VERY VERY flammable.
I got some purple canes off a friend a couple of months ago. It's now sprouted and this will be my first year growing can, i'm looking forward to growing it. Thanks for the tips. Great vid.
This Video is AMAZING Mark!!! You are really great at TH-cam and seIf-sufficiency. I learned a lot, whilst also being really entertained. 🙂👍 Looking foward to growing it!
The Government here in America did the same thing, bringing in the cane frog, down here in Florida. No natural predators has created the same disastrous nightmares as in Australia.
Yep. They are nasty things. The most dangerous words in the world is "I'm from the Government, and here to help. Paraphrasing from Ronald Reagan. Truth.
I live almost right on the polar circle in Finland and tjere are so many things you grow that just is not possible to grow here. but I keep watching you because you are so inspiring! keep up the good work
This is something forgotten. My father gave us kids pieces of the stalk when I grew up. We looked forward to it. Haven’t seen any for years. My climate is too short for growth and I’m short on space. Thanks for the reminder of a great memory.
Hoping to find plants/seeds here in Britain to enable me to grow sugarcane and I also love the idea to use it’s spent foliage for mulching. Excellent as always Mark 👍👍🇦🇺🇬🇧🇦🇺🇬🇧
You have made me very interested in the idea of growing some sugar cane. I love sweets but have been wanting to lessen my intake of highly processed food.
I have eaten raw sugar cane in Madeira (Portugal) and it was so nice. Not as sweet as I thought it would be, but quite nice to chew on. I also drank sugar cane juice in Singapore and really liked it. The real thing is so much better than any sugary drink.
I see you with your saw, my mother gave me a cane knife for a birthday or Christmas gift or whatever. The handiest place i found to keep it handy was under the car seat. Putting a saw under the car seat would be just silly.
The best video of yours I've ever seen!! Thank you very much for this great information! This is the first and ONLY video I've ever seen about sugar cane. I'm not in the tropics, but we have a very long, hot summer here, about six months, so maybe this could work here! Super helpful info, thanks so much 🏆👏😃
Wow, I never considered growing cane. Growing up, my grandfather grew it on his small farm in south Georgia (US) so we always had cane syrup and he'd give us pieces of cane to chew on. But I have not seen anyone growing it since then (the 70's). I'm currently too far north I think but will be moving south again when I retire and I will definitely give it a try.
This video bought back special memories of eating fresh sugar cane that our Grandfather would grab off the side of the road near Maryborough. Where did you purchase the seed canes please?
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW THE RODENT FLY OUT OF THE CONTAINER AT 15:12 DURING MARK'S 5TH TIP so funny. I guess everyone has a sweet tooth. Cheers from Central Florida
I'm zone 4-5 here in northern Idaho so no sugarcane for me. But I do have a lot of success growing annual stevia patches. Sugar beets also do very well up here. I love seeing all your awesome growing techniques and cool plants. I was just contemplating growing a few pawpaws since they're the closest I can get to a tropical plant haha.
We love watching your content. I grew up in Southeast Texas and my grandpa would always cut us some sugar cane to chew on while we worked the horses (he worked, my brother and I played lol). It was great memories and appreciated this video especially! ❤
i'd love to hear more about the freeze dryer, i've been looking into them as a way to dry cannabis but it's so expensive to get one, would appreciate hearing about your overall experience with it!
Have you ever tried sweet sorghum canes (sorgo)? It's a traditional treat here in South Africa, it's an annual with thinner canes that we grow from seed and is gaining popularity again alongside sugar cane
Always love ur videos, I learn a lot and ur funny and I love that u don’t demonize foods, u embrace them bc they’re real foods & have helped me grow a backyard garden, thank u & cheers!🥂 ps have u ever done anything on moringa or do u have some?
I have never even considered growing sugar cane as I live just into what we call the northeast here in the USA. We do get some pretty hot humid summer weather but winter can get very cold (but not Canadian cold). Perhaps I may give it a go next year.
My son-in-law has been growing heritage varieties of sugarcane, and milling the juice and processing cane syrup for about 5 years or so. (Here in the northern Gulf of Mexico USA, it is an annual.) Last fall, I tried using fresh cane juice in a kombucha with green and black tea, and it produced a very vigorous, very white thick scoby in record time, that was very effervescent. I know the bacteria and yeasts in kombucha digest sugar, so I hope this mitigates the effects of the sugar spike on my body to some extent, but still avails me the benefits of the cane juices.
I make kombucha, and I use as-little-processed sugar as I can find in a normal grocery on a given day in my cold, northern, land-locked state. 😆 And that sounds amazing!
G'day Everyone, feel free to share your opinion on eating or growing sugarcane below. Thanks for your support! Cheers :)
I live in Trinidad 🇹🇹 (Caribbean) sugar cane loves water….. if you give the sugar cane a lot of water it will grow fatter and softer canes. If shoots as a thin cane it will remain thin (not fatten later) if it shoots fat oooo you are in for a treat. Mother encouraged chewing the canes as it (fibers) cleans your teeth from plague ….. sometime you chew tooo much and your teeth can start to edge (SQUEAKY CLEAN LOL) ….. I can goo onnn and onnn mate… but this comment would be too …. Long (pun intended)
When I was a kid, my mom bought sugar cane and we chewed on it. Haven't seen it in stores for years.
How much $ for you to make a couple starts from your cane stalks and ship to us in US near Niagara Falls NYS??
…or Melbourne 😅
lol. I know. I moved to NZ over 30yrs ago. You can stick a twig in the ground here and it will grow. Sugar cane is my next try out!
My dad was a North Texas farm boy. (During the Great Depression) One of their cash crops was sugar cane, or rather the cooked down syrup from sugar cane. His family had a farm that was not irrigated, so they were considered dry land farmers. Their primary cash crops were sugar cane, peanuts & dent corn. The farmers in the local area depended upon itinerant sugar cane processors. They had the equipment to squeeze the juice from the sugar cane crops & the farmers cooked it down into syrup. The guys who squeezed the sugar cane traveled from town to town, processing the sugar cane, taking a share of the finished syrup as payment for their services. The squeezed sugar canes were then fed to the livestock. Nothing was wasted.
Then, of course, they had their kitchen garden where they grew crops to feed the family. (Corn, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, beans, squash, etc) They also raised hogs as a cash crop. So, they had hogs, chickens, a couple of milk cows & mules to pull the plow. My siblings & I grew up hearing stories about life on a dry land farm during the Great Depression. No electricity, no running water, no irrigation, etc. My dad was the youngest child. Because of that he never had a new pair of shoes or new clothing until he outgrew his two older brothers & their hand-me-downs at the age of 16.
I grew up gnawing on partially peeled sugar cane sticks. It was sold in grocery stores in foot long segments. We considered it quite a treat.
This is a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. My family also came from a poor farming background 2 generations ago, unfortunately my parents Decided to be city folk and became university professors and doctors. But now I'm going back to my farming roots by growing all kinds of veggies and keeping chickens. Love growing stuff. Plus, it's really good for the soul. And sugar cane is very well known in China too so it'll once again be like a blast from the past for me.
Great story!
How interesting, thank u
👍👍
What’s the next depression going to look like with no local farms
For gardeners who want to grow their own sweeteners but live in a zone that is too cold for sugar cane, they might want to try growing sorghum. Sorghum can be grown in colder climates because they have a shorter 'days to maturity' (life cycle) than sugar cane. Sorghum can be squeezed for the sweet juice that is then cooked down to a syrup. Also, sorghum produces edible seeds that can be ground into a gluten free flour to be used for pancakes & some baked goods & can also be popped like popcorn.
Another alternative would be to grow sugar beets. The best beets to use for sugar production are the white beets. They are sweeter & not as earthy tasting as red beets. (Beet root, for you guys from the British Empire...)
Another alternative would be to take up bee keeping.
Great tips. Thank you for sharing.
Stevia is really easy to grow for anyone interested in a sweetener without calories.
@@GeomancerHTread somewhere that the Japanese process hydrangea flowers to make a naturally sweet tea. Maybe this tea can then be freezedried into a powder sweetener.
Is zone 7 in the USA to cold for sugar cane?
I've been trying to source sugar beets.
No joy thus far.
Stevia leaves are also tasty
When I was living in India, I was traveling (via train and bus - that is fun!) I was getting sicker, (it was BAD). The bus made a stop at one point to pick up more people (yes, the bus was already full), I looked out the window and a man was handing out Sugar cane juice. I am telling you, it was what my body needed to get itself strong enough till I arrived at my location. sugar cane juice is amazing!!!
The description of India, I remember it well, everything you're describing! But no one thought to offer me sugar cane juice and I had no idea either. That's great!
@@bellowyelly
Sugar was first cultivated in India , Europeans wanted to reach India due to its products …..they got to know there are grass in India which is sweet . Sugar comes from Sanskrit word sharkara, and candy from Sanskrit word Kalkand crystallized sugar. When they eventually got hands to the knowledge they brought African slaves and indentured labors from India and Asia to grow in other colonies ….free knowledge, free resource , free labor any theif can become rich overnight
It might be worth to mention that some varieties of green sugarcane also have tiny hairs that might get into your skin and be very painful/bothersome so using gloves is a must. I learnt this from my neighbors dad as he used to grow lots of sugarcane for sale. 🙏🏽
As a child (in the 40's) our Florida home property was divided by informal sugar cane "hedges". I still delight in the memory of spontaneously chewing on canes!
In the 40's! You're in your 90's?
@@YOOTOOBjase 80s
I remember in '15 when I went to Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico and I noticed the sugar for the coffee was huge, tinted cubes. My sister in law showed me the plants in her backyard with the poinsettias and lime trees. My other sister in law made a drink with fresh caramel and the sugarcane and milk to sell. That was 100% better than a Starbucks Latte 😅 They also had fresh, unprocessed milk so my sister in law made yogurt everyday w/fresh fruit from the market. ❤ Too much processed stuff here in the city. 😢
I remember when my dad would buy a small stalk of sugar cane and cut it up for all us girls to try.
For those who live in the northern US, there is a variety that can tolerate our climate (to 6a) it is called Saccharum arundinaceum. I am so excited to see if I can find any next spring to start growing it.❤
Hey, THANKS!! 😊
Unfortunately while that variety is technically a sugar cane, it really doesn't really produce any sugar. It is often grown for fiber but has no value for sugar.
We occasionally chewed on raw sugar cane in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when I was a kid- 1970's. We also ate raw coconut - expending more calories to open them than we could possibly consume.
😂
I love when you post about these more tropic plants. A little vicarious living
Sugarcane needs care too. To get bigger thicker canes, you remove older or dried leaves further down the canes. You then tie them or stake them to each other so they grow taller. I'm from Papua New Guinea. Over here, we peel the cane with our teeth, bite off chunks, chew and suck the juice out of the cane.
👍👍👍😀💕🌸
Quando eu era criança, nós primos e primas se juntavam ao redor de fogueiras a noite, torcendo e chupando esse Suco maravilhoso , de gomos de cana! Tbm faziam se os melaços pra comerem no café da manhã, com farinha de milho branca. Quão saudáveis éramos!! Maravilha!
Just for the record, my rabbits love the Sugar Cane leaves! Cane for me and leaves for them!
Central Florida and the cane grows great!
I'm from Trinidad but live in California. I grew up eating sugarcane and loved it. Fast forward to present day life in California where we have 2 sugarcane patches successfully growing. Even introduced it to my neighbor and they love it. Thanks for the video highlighting the sugarcane and it's many uses😊
Besides giving us good information, this gentleman is funnier than a comedy club entertainer.
My daddy grew this when I was a boy. He would cut joints of it, peel it and we absolutely loved to chew on it.
I helped each year to plant it. Sometimes he would save the eyelets and we would plant those with the shoot facing up, sometimes if he had stalks that were drying up that we hadn't chewed he would make a furrow and lay the entire stalk in it and cover with soil, no need to cut , saving time.
Thanks for the video, it certainly took me back 50 years to my childhood in East Texas 😊
Okay I’m getting a sugar cane bed to screen the neighbour’s backyard. Love your work Mark. When you sung at the beginning it melted my heart 😂 always lovely to see your face!
I have a small plot of sugarcane. Bought a couple canes from a local grocery store and put it in the ground. Growing great.
Im in far southwest AZ, and its hot here.
I'm in the Valley in Az. Where would I purchase sugar cane and will it grow in our high heat? phnx area?
@teasandtreasures8692
Yes, sugar cane can be grown in Phoenix.
From what I understand, sugar cane likes temperatures of 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When temperatures get over 100 degrees F use shade cloths over the sugar cane.
I use shade cloth for many plants when temperatures get over 100 degrees F.
There is plenty of information on the Internet on how to grow sugar cane in Phoenix ( and other places) and many many sites to buy sugar cane cuttings.
@@jrg4313 thanks for the information I will look it up I've not had much luck out here with this heat. The past few Summers I've lost several rose bushes and rose trees, also some citrus trees it's been really hard on the plants.
Thank you, from a New Mexican neighbor. Great to know!
Big 👍here from someone who has stopped consuming refined sugar completely! I intend to cook my own jaggery or molasses and better yet grow my own sugarcane in my backyard 😁
Sugar is sugar my friend
Just chewed a foot long sugar cane stick this afternoon. Brings a lot of memories 35 yrs ago in a rural place in Philippines. The variety we have has bigger stalks and has a purple redish skin. Just plant it a sunny place and it will grow crazy fast...
You have some of the most informative and useful videos of all my subscriptions on YT.
Ikr he's the best
We grow it in our gardens in Dallas, Texas. It provides the perfect amount of dappled shade for our tomatoes and other plants during the scorching summer heat
One of my fondest childhood memories is chewing on freshly cut sugar cane and tasting that amazing juice. This is such a unique gardening video!
Sem dúvida tbm guardo essas lembranças!💖💖💖👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🇧🇷
In the early to mid 60’s I chewed a lot of sugar cane. My uncle grew a small patch of it just for me, and we’d take it home after visiting in the summer. Our local fruit stand sold stalks for 5¢ or 10¢. The downside was this was an outdoor treat because it was messy, and mama wouldn’t always let me take one of her knives out.
Step zero: Don't live in the UK :(
EDIT: Yes, I am aware there are alternatives. I know you can juice corn stalks, grow sugar beets etc. This is a joke comment. Those sugar alternatives are also less cost effective than buying sugar, and the end result isn't as pure and tends to have an after taste. For every 1KG of sugar beet you grow, you will get around 100-150g of sugar.
Or Denmark :(
@@melissahansen6199 Depending on how long your seasons are, you might be able to do what I'm doing this year, which is growing "sorghum". I'm testing it out this season to see how it works out, but once you take the grain from the top, you can apparently juice the stems and do a boil and get decent quality syrup. They call it the "pancake plant" in the south of the US, because it makes both the flour and syrup at once. Might be worth a shot? If you want good grain, grow the white variety, if you want good syrup, grow the black one.
You can grow it here with great difficulty but it's not really worth it, pineapples however are very fun to grow in the UK and i would highly recommend trying it.
Here in brazil it grows like weed
Or Canada
We grow both on our farm in Thailand. I much prefer the purples over the greens. Great for chewing on and excellent additions for Mojitos...Fresh limes from our trees, mint from the garden, cane sugar syrup, and a purple cane stick to stir....along with the rum and soda of course. Magic on a hot day.
Back in the 50s I lived in Conway, South Carolina. I was an Air Force brat so we did not have a farm, but I had local friends who would bring sugar cane to school. It was quite a treat and a fond memory for me.
You can make piloncillo/panela with sugar cane. It is a very strong and rich sweetener, while still being completely natural
In México we love to make Café de Olla with it
Great video.
Here in Brazil we love sugarcane juice, called "Garapa" in some places, and organic sugar, syrup and the sweet bricks called "Rapadura" are also very popular products made from sugarcane.
Weird. In Europe (& nations they immigrated to) we brew an alcoholic beverage called GRAPPA, made from the waste ingredients from grape production.
@@roidroid Maybe there is a link between these words since Garapa is a relatively new word and the origin is not known.
It could be a coincidence but it sounds like it was a misspelling of Grappa.
A lot around here in Louisiana. Sometimes you can see people pulling over and running in a field to grab a few when the farmers aren’t looking 😊
Brilliant - very helpful. Thank you very much from South Africa 🌍
Port elizabeth😂
@@kingmufasa8929 Hey, hello over there 😁😁😁
I LOVE that the Grow a Ton series is still on-going! Please make more of these, maybe about some herbs, that's been a while. Or a ton of green onions. Cheers from Germany!
I never thought of growing sugar cane in a raised bed. I've heard of a Vietnamese sugar cane juice, but haven't tried it. Thanks for the great video!
I bought some sugarcane and planted them along my fenceline for shelter from the weather, as I live in cold Melbourne🥶 they are looking green and healthy at the moment. Fingers crossed I’ll get them in summer to eat🤞 You answered my questions about feeding them. Thank you for sharing as usual 👍
Hi Mark, fellow Aussie here. This is great! Thanks. 👏 I recently did a video about using sugar cane mulch in the veggie garden, but noting the downside was the expensive cost per bag (where I am anyway). Someone commented that you just made a video on growing it and that I should try to grow it myself to use as mulch. What a great idea. I think I will give it a go. Thanks Mark. - Kelly 👍
As a kid in Florida during the mid 60's & 70's, we would go down to Hollywood FL each winter to see our Gramps & Gram. We would always stop at the Sugar Cane fields for freshly harvested canes and Cane syrup.. We always knew when we saw the smoke from them burning the fields that they were open for business. There is nothing like fresh Sugar Cane . What Great memories.
Your singing caught me off guard. Truly a voice from the heavens.
I love how you provide so much thought and knowledge on your videos growing food. Thank you, Mark.
Your singing voice is surprisingly comforting
Hi Mark. Thanks for the great video. I’ve just ordered my first lot of sugarcane for my garden since watching and being inspired. ❤
Howdy Mark, I watch all your videos and want to grow everything on our homestead. This year has been our best year so far for the garden. We might have grown enough onions to be self sufficient on onions until next year harvest. Even with something cheap to buy onions it is a great feeling knowing we were able to grow enough to provide for ourself. Keep up the great work. Semper Fi
Truly, organic, homegrown onions are priceless. :)
🙌🏻
That intro earned a sweet thumbs up 👍
How sweet I it is to hear your happy voice!!!❤ Thank you for making learning easy and fun.
I get the big bales of Australian sugar cane mulch from Bunnings - it's awesome. It breaks down into the soil within 18 months. Only problems are it can get hydrophobic if you lay it on too thick, and when it's dry it's VERY VERY flammable.
💥
I got some purple canes off a friend a couple of months ago. It's now sprouted and this will be my first year growing can, i'm looking forward to growing it. Thanks for the tips. Great vid.
Brought up in Bundaberg and they used to grow tomatoes in the fallow paddocks between seasons.
How sweet it is to watch content by you! One day…I’m coming to visit you, brother.
The food version of bamboo really cool
Now I'm wondering how pandas would react to sugar cane.
i am the panda now
Wonderful. I am growing Sugarcane in containers in the difficult climate of London in the UK.
I've been looking into buying some cuttings to start growing my own. This video just made up my mind 💜 thank you 💜
This Video is AMAZING Mark!!!
You are really great at TH-cam and seIf-sufficiency. I learned a lot, whilst also being really entertained. 🙂👍 Looking foward to growing it!
The Government here in America did the same thing, bringing in the cane frog, down here in Florida.
No natural predators has created the same disastrous nightmares as in Australia.
Yep. They are nasty things. The most dangerous words in the world is "I'm from the Government, and here to help. Paraphrasing from Ronald Reagan. Truth.
So far i think im going to be successful with sorghum this year here in zone 6. Definitely want to try cane next year.
UPNY I've been wanting to grow this. New house new gardens. 6 raised beds. 7 Hopefully with this.
LETS GO
I live almost right on the polar circle in Finland and tjere are so many things you grow that just is not possible to grow here. but I keep watching you because you are so inspiring! keep up the good work
Greenhouse
💚 a friend of mine has a big clump of sugar cane. Cuts it in lengths for his cows to eat during winter.
5:30 I could see the sweetness of the decaying stalks finding it's way into the fruit of those trees you've mulched.
That is not how mulch works. Plant roots cannot absorb large saccharide molecules.
@@teebob21However sugar molecules are great for earthworms and other micro organisms.
Love Love Love Sugar cane~ I grew up chewing on it in Florida. Yummmmm
A balance on everything is the key.. ❤😊
This is something forgotten. My father gave us kids pieces of the stalk when I grew up. We looked forward to it. Haven’t seen any for years. My climate is too short for growth and I’m short on space. Thanks for the reminder of a great memory.
That little tune sung at the beginning of the video was worth the like! Love your videos!
Hoping to find plants/seeds here in Britain to enable me to grow sugarcane and I also love the idea to use it’s spent foliage for mulching. Excellent as always Mark 👍👍🇦🇺🇬🇧🇦🇺🇬🇧
You have made me very interested in the idea of growing some sugar cane. I love sweets but have been wanting to lessen my intake of highly processed food.
I have eaten raw sugar cane in Madeira (Portugal) and it was so nice. Not as sweet as I thought it would be, but quite nice to chew on. I also drank sugar cane juice in Singapore and really liked it. The real thing is so much better than any sugary drink.
Love your show, thank you for your knowledge.
I see you with your saw, my mother gave me a cane knife for a birthday or Christmas gift or whatever.
The handiest place i found to keep it handy was under the car seat.
Putting a saw under the car seat would be just silly.
The best video of yours I've ever seen!! Thank you very much for this great information! This is the first and ONLY video I've ever seen about sugar cane. I'm not in the tropics, but we have a very long, hot summer here, about six months, so maybe this could work here! Super helpful info, thanks so much 🏆👏😃
I tried it for the first time this year in the Philippines, yummy.
Very nice and quick education about suger cane. Thanks for that Mark!
I’m in Florida, was thinking of doing some sugar cane this year
Perfect timing for the video!
It does great in Florida.
I remember drinking fresh sugarcane in Cuba and it was so refreshing even though it has warm as
Fun video Mark- I can grow this in Texas!!
Thank you for the video. You are correct, everything in moderation 🙂
Wow, I never considered growing cane. Growing up, my grandfather grew it on his small farm in south Georgia (US) so we always had cane syrup and he'd give us pieces of cane to chew on. But I have not seen anyone growing it since then (the 70's). I'm currently too far north I think but will be moving south again when I retire and I will definitely give it a try.
got a greenhouse?
This video bought back special memories of eating fresh sugar cane that our Grandfather would grab off the side of the road near Maryborough. Where did you purchase the seed canes please?
AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW THE RODENT FLY OUT OF THE CONTAINER AT 15:12 DURING MARK'S 5TH TIP so funny. I guess everyone has a sweet tooth. Cheers from Central Florida
I remember eating sugar cane growing up in Texas in the early 70's
I'm zone 4-5 here in northern Idaho so no sugarcane for me. But I do have a lot of success growing annual stevia patches. Sugar beets also do very well up here. I love seeing all your awesome growing techniques and cool plants. I was just contemplating growing a few pawpaws since they're the closest I can get to a tropical plant haha.
I’m in northern Utah, and you’ve just inspired me! Stevia!? Thank you!
Thank you. You're a blessing to everyone willing to listen and learn from you.
I love this whole concept. Thank you!
Mark: I'll cut some sugarcanes here!!
Mouse be like: I am going to get the hell out of here before I am cut into pieces!
thanks Mark!! love from Sonoma California!!
We love watching your content. I grew up in Southeast Texas and my grandpa would always cut us some sugar cane to chew on while we worked the horses (he worked, my brother and I played lol). It was great memories and appreciated this video especially! ❤
i'd love to hear more about the freeze dryer, i've been looking into them as a way to dry cannabis but it's so expensive to get one, would appreciate hearing about your overall experience with it!
G'day mate! Watching your videos in my apt in NYC!
Perfect I was looking for a cheap way to make a privacy fence and the powdered sugar looks good too.
Have you ever tried sweet sorghum canes (sorgo)? It's a traditional treat here in South Africa, it's an annual with thinner canes that we grow from seed and is gaining popularity again alongside sugar cane
When I was a little kid living in Louisiana, we use to eat sugar canes once in awhile.
Thanks for my next project
I love the “how sweet it is” jingle in the beginning of the video. Good touch 🤌🏽👍🏽
Took me a minute, but... UNrefined. XD Love you man, you're hilarious.
Always love ur videos, I learn a lot and ur funny and I love that u don’t demonize foods, u embrace them bc they’re real foods & have helped me grow a backyard garden, thank u & cheers!🥂 ps have u ever done anything on moringa or do u have some?
Awesome video and very informative. Thanks mate!
Use to love getting canes brought down from Queensland by an uncle
You convinced me to grow a sugar cane spot.
Love this video
Never ate sugarcane, it looks good I gone order some on Amazon
Thanks for being you, man! Love your content!
Grew up with sugar cane and made molasses with it. So fantastic tasting when chewing on it. Great video!!
Love your stuff kick on love it ❤❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤍💥
I have never even considered growing sugar cane as I live just into what we call the northeast here in the USA. We do get some pretty hot humid summer weather but winter can get very cold (but not Canadian cold). Perhaps I may give it a go next year.
Thank you for your Time and Knowledge, I learn a lot. Have a Blessed day and don't forget to Enjoy Life.. From Bridgeport Connecticut. USA
My son-in-law has been growing heritage varieties of sugarcane, and milling the juice and processing cane syrup for about 5 years or so. (Here in the northern Gulf of Mexico USA, it is an annual.)
Last fall, I tried using fresh cane juice in a kombucha with green and black tea, and it produced a very vigorous, very white thick scoby in record time, that was very effervescent.
I know the bacteria and yeasts in kombucha digest sugar, so I hope this mitigates the effects of the sugar spike on my body to some extent, but still avails me the benefits of the cane juices.
I make kombucha, and I use as-little-processed sugar as I can find in a normal grocery on a given day in my cold, northern, land-locked state. 😆 And that sounds amazing!