Child labor 😄 We were taught to work in our parents & grandparents gardens from the time we were big enough. I love how I was raised up..not so crazy about it at the time, wanted to play! But, I learned to appreciate the learning experience that I was taught at such a young age. Love you're family.. ya'll are awesome!
I was land surveying at page field Airport in fort myers and the guard following me around randomly asked, "Do you want any sugarcane?".. I said "hell ya!"... Turns out the firefighters on site were growing their own Pineapples, Avacados, Sugar Cane, Herbs, etc... Pretty random and cool, and now I have sugar cane!
I'll never forget my first day working on a CSA farm here in Jacksonville. Francisco was from Puerto Rico and had a friend near you who had some legendary strain from Rico that they used to make rum with. We got the contract to grow cane from the newly renovated Old Ice Packing plant building for the first distillery in St A since prohibition - St Augustine Distillery. "Be at work early I'll be there with the cane he says," and boss shows up with a 22'(I believe? Maybe 32'?) U-Haul to the farm. You couldn't shove a pencil through those layers of cane parallel to the ground top to bottom. He taught me everything I know about it but man. . cut every cane into 3 nodes. Let them callus for three days.. and planted 8 half mile rows. Yeah that was a long week.
May I buy some for planting? I live in St Augustine Florida and have been looking for some. My father used to have friends in Elkton and used to go somewhere out there to help grind it and make cane syrup. Please respond. TY
@@donitapearson9480 unfortunately my cultivar is in the smaller volume stage because I moved back home from 3.5years in Oregon. I know others I gave it to that have huge yields, but haven't got cuttings back from them yet. Mine is all mother stock for a few years. I would head to the farmers market at the st. A amphitheatre today or next Saturday. Im sure they have cane it may not be the strain we used, but until I can sell some of mine..
Thanks! Good idea. I’m across from you in LA near to Covington/Bush/Slidell. Can you recommend any particular cane variety for me? I’m in sandy piney woods soil.
God provided a way to grow natural sugar just about everywhere. 40/1 ratio maple sap to syrup here in 6A. My first job at 12yo was gathering sap in the woods in buckets.
You'll still get cavities and diabetes if you eat too much sugar, "natural" or not. Why did God arrange for that? Fructose is fructose, whether it comes in honey, maple syrup, cane sugar, sugar beets, dates etc. Honey does have the advantage of having antibacterial qualities and lasting thousands of years, so that's something. It seems to work as well on wounds as Bacitracin.
I've been trying to tell people this recently! I had sugar cane getting too big and unruly so I cleared some back and had the idea to rough chop them into 6-8 inch sections and throw them into my compost bin, best compost I've ever made was the result. I had 4 bins running next to each other only separated by a couple of weeks each, I only added sugar cane to 1 of the bins and that bin produced hands down the best black gold compost I've ever seen. A few chunks left over on the top had tons of little red wigglers housed in it boring it out, they seem to love the stuff late into the compost process. The bio char I had in this pile even looks different than the bio char I had in the other 3 piles. I highly suggest experimenting with this idea.
One of the other ingredients I had was gigantic jack fruits that had fallen from the tree. I'd just shovel them in whole and jab them up with a shovel. It's the worms in the cane stalks sitting atop the best black gold I've ever seen, making fresh worm castings on top of it that has me excited.
This video gives me flashbacks of when I planted sugarcane as a teenager. I'm from South Louisiana and sugar cane is mostly the main crop. I have probably planted thousands of acres of sugarcane by hand, walking 3 people behind a cane trailer and placing them in rows. The harvester would cut the tops off as it harvested. We would work from as the farmer would say, "from can to can't" I made $1 an hour. Sugar cane is a 3-year crop, so you harvest one field and plant it in another field. Then it's harvested and sold to the sugar mill. We would plant the cane overlapped half with the previous stalk. It takes 3 years for the sugar content to reach its maximum sugar content, after that it can change from year to year. But just for a family, it does not make much of a difference. In colder climates, I think sugar beets can be planted. But I don't know anything about sugar beats or colder climates.
Once a customer in Indonesia brought us to a sugar cane field. The farmers were boiling cane and pressing it and forming the sugar into disc shapes. It was a surreal experience.
@@TrickleCreekFarm I think it was just fishmeal. Here's the video I made th-cam.com/video/r3sLdkOqDu8/w-d-xo.html I got the seeds from Bulgaria I think, I thought 'now that looks like an interesting challenge'
I didn't know sugar cane was so hardy. I'm trying to grow sugar beets because I didn't think I could grow sugar canes in Oregon. I've never seen it sold at any of my local farmer markets so I'll probably have to hunt for it online. Thanks for all the great information you share. I have all your books on my wish list and maybe I'll get one or more for Christmas.
the "How To Make Everything" TH-cam channel recently tried to make sugar from beets. It was something about "you probably don't know where sugar comes from." Try to find it. It was a really difficult, not entirely satisfactory process.
Me either and I've been growing it for a little over a yr in 9a, we get frost. Planted 2-types, one died out and the other is thriving, need to propagate, spread it. It's an attractive front yard 'fence'. Crucial for me in N. Commiforia--it is one of my most drought tolerant plants, I didn't even connect it to my drip system and just sporadically hand watered thru hot summer, never showed stress.
@@brucetidwell7715 I had read that sugar beets are more effecient at producing sugar than cane is...but have not read anything about the processing differences...
@@Mike80528 I know next to nothing about it except that, in the video, the challenge seemed to be getting all of the "beet" taste out of it. From what I remember from the one time I tasted sugar cane, it has a very neutral sweet flavor, maybe a little bit greenwhich would cook out. However, most of the sugar we eat these days is made from beets so it is possible to get that out.
We just bought a sugar cane at an Asian market and planted it in a pot indoors because the article I read said it was tropical, and we're in zone 8b. So cool you can grow it outdoors, and nice serendipity you just made a video on it! Next year, we'll set out our sugar cane to grow wild and free! Thanks for all the awesome videos. They are heartwarming and magical!!
@@kristynirizarry7413 I am not sure about the proper diameter of the pot, and since I am just rooting the canes in potting soil to see if they take, I didn't research it well. However, I read that it likes to be in about 3 feet of well drained soil that is nutrient-rich and kept moist. So I have it in a very tall pot with good organic potting soil just to get it rooted over the winter and early spring while it's frosting in my growing zone. If you check back with me I'll let you know how the canes do over the winter.
Someone gave me about a dozen clumps last year around this time, and I've been looking at them for the last few weeks wondering if I should be doing something with them. I'm going to relocate some clumps and divide them, cut up some canes and make a few wagon wheels. When we were kids we used to toss cow pies at each other, skip em on the pond, etc., but they were never that fresh. We always waited until they were hard and dry. I've never seen anyone handle fresh crap like that.
@@davidthegood I grew up near a stockyard. I'm wondering if that may have supplied me with enough immunity to make a booster unnecessary. Down around Los Angeles the Bandini Fertilizer company constructed a 100' tall mountain for advertising purposes. Their ads showed a skier "going where only cows had gone before". After they went bankrupt, their smelly mountain remained, and "Bandini Mountain" has since become synonymous with unpleasant things that don't go away.
Know what? I'ma go to Food Bazaar after this fantastic (growth not malignant) doctor's appointment, toute suite, and buy me some cane in appreciation of NATURE. Been drinking another cane's water (mangle rojo), and it might be doing the trick. Thank you again, Mr. DTG and Fam.
Thank you for this information. I will schedule a trip to Florida next Nov. This will work out great in my garden for next fall because I'm not going to use half of my garden area for spring of 2024 as I am giving it a 7 year rest period. God bless you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving---Keep on growing!!!
This is why I like your channel. You teach! This video is a year old but since meeting you and your family, Jodi and I have a renewed Spirit of gardening. Thank you for the instruction. I like the Danny and Wanda wagon wheel method too!
Really glad you did this video. I bought some sugarcane from a Mexican store. The first cane was delicious. The rest were infected with that red cane disease.
love it that you and Danny and Wanda were able to SHARE all the info--- blessings to you and your wife and kiddos--- I'm excited to try Sugar Cane- were in Middle TN` love the forever family memories you are making together
You answered some important questions. I do have a three plants from last year and I will plant them as you suggest soon. I have some blue ribbon cane cuttings coming and I will next saturday go to some of the farmers markets that are local to me in Pace, FL and will also try Pensacola. I am also working on cassava and chinese yams and I still have some jerusalem artichokes to check out. I will pot some of the blue ribbon canes so that I have an early head start next april or maybe late march. I have have wet lands next to a creek. I had to remove the shade, but it should good to go and that is where all of the my good soil is since I live on a hill.
Hi David! New sub! Great video. I love sugar cane, however it is really hard to grow here where I live in West Virginia, unless you have a fairly large green house. Like today, June 16, it was 55 this morning. I’m originally from Birmingham and growing up, my brother and I would spend most of the summer in south Mississippi where all our extended family lived. My Grandfather was a farmer and would grow sugar cane every year, and make molasses. Let’s see, I’m 49 now, and my extended family is still growing the cane and making syrup. So they’ve been doing it well over 100 years now, and using the same syrup mill to this day. My brother and I have some wonderful memories growing up and being around that mill. Funny thing, as a kid I would see them putting the finished syrup in what I thought were paint cans. They were gold on the outside and I always thought that was the funniest thing, putting syrup in paint cans. 😄
"Through the wonder of child labor..." 😂😂😂 In Atlanta, you can get sugar can stalks at the Dekalb International Farmers Market in small sections, 18 in. or so. I never noticed the price. David, how do you press yours?
Thank you! This video got me off the couch to chop down some sugar cane and give it to the kids. They love it! I planted it a couple years ago thinking it would be a fun garden snack for the kids, but never harvest it. We are in the burbs and we've done what we can with where God has us. Planted the food forest a few years ago and got some chickens last year. Thanks for the motivation👍!
Sadly we can’t grow maple here, the chinooks seemed to of never allowed the trees to grow here, that or it’s too flipping cold! Honey is what’s possible here and growing stevia if you’re industrious.
I'm in zone 8 on the North Carolina coast. I have been wanting to grow cane but had been told (not from a gardener) that it would not grow in my area, that it would only grow in Florida .. hhmmm now I will be growing it! Thank you!
Sorry I missed the premiere...you ARE the sugar cane expert now.! We bought some cane from DSH on Etsy about a month or so ago We've been keeping it trimmed down so it doesn't freeze during our premature cold snaps.
Happy Thanksgiving David and Family. May the grace, mercy and love of our most beautiful Lord Jesus Christ richly bless all who believe with peace, understanding, satisfaction, courage, a desire to engage and joy now and forevermore.
David I just got some red sugarcane locally. I was lucky to find someone close by. It isn't that sweet though. Was wondering if it could be environmental ? Or lack of nutrients ?
I'm right on the boundary between zone 6 and zone 7. I'm quite doubtful that I could grow sugar cane here, but maybe I'll try to find some. I have done sorghum before and have been considering using some saved seeds to grow some more this year. Yacon is another syrup crop that will work in most of the U.S. (with larger yields in warmer areas). I'm trying that this year, but I suspect I'll use it all for fresh eating rather than syrup.
You planted it in January? I just planted some in buckets yesterday so I can move them indoors when it starts getting cold. I live in south central Oklahoma zone 7b. Do you know or know of anyone who has grown it indoors with central heatral heating through the winter? Thanks
QUESTION … when you clear an area with your chickens, are you providing/baiting the area with any chicken feed, or do they just consuming the available vegetation and bugs … also, approximately how often do you rotate the chicken tractor ? … thanks!
We throw compost here and there inside the tractor - but they happily tear up and eat all the grass without encouragement. We move the tractor when they've totally destroyed the grass. If we wanted grass to grow better, rather than all be eaten, we would move them every couple of days.
Hey David, can you cut the buds with just part of the ring where the roots come out off the cane , root the buds and juice the cane? I know it will work if you cut on each side of the root ring and leave about an inch of cane on each side of the root ring but Then you have a bunch of short pieces of cane to juice and it might be sort of hard to juice that way, I have a few short pieces to try and see.Thanks man
Thank you Sir for the guidance. I absolutely failed at it this year planting in the spring in Central Florida. Not sure if what I did plant will come up later or if it just rotted away. I’ll try again now if I can locate some. Thanks again.
David, if you see this, what is your take on growing Long Grain Rice in Zone 8a (central South Carolina Sandy soil)?? I have grown Sorghum here, it LOVED IT! I didn’t make syrup out of it, I don’t have a press but I did harvest a lot of seed, I planted 15 seeds this spring and I got thousands of seeds back. Chickens loved them lol i belive I saved some for this coming spring. But if you could let me know about the Rice that would be great.
@@donnahoward4236 MIgardener!! When I bought last year it was 50 seeds but he increased seed count on all packs and just released the ‘23 seed catalog and can order.
I just put some in water. Rooted but I put them in the water upside down based on the nodes that came up so just put them in the dirt. Think they'll be ok?
In zone 6, maybe even 5, now, you mentioned sorghum, can you talk about that some more, please? So much else to do, it seems, but I did get garlic in and covered...would love to add sorghum. Ground is already pretty cold, to me, but Jesse has a tractor. : ) hope he likes my plan...
Roots -- about how deep do the sugar cane roots grow? I understand it to be both a heavy feeder and liking a good bit of moisture. I'm wondering how near our septic leach field would be safe (for the leach field!). Any thoughts? Thanks so much!!!
@@davidthegood thanks! Out chicken yard is actually directly over the field, and I'm looking for ways to "garden" there for both their health and ours! Appreciate all your videos. Blessings to you & the fam. :o)
I’m in south Florida. 10b. I know it’s harvesting season you say. But what about us no-frost areas? Can we harvest randomly throughout the year? I planted maybe like 5 months ago. It’s about 5 or 6 feet tall Should I harvest or wait?
Anyone know where to get it in the Mobile, Theodore, Grand Bay area in Alabama? And, does it mind soggy ground? My yard can turn into a wet, sink in the mud mess sometime.
Totally off topic but I just learned about supplementing soil with Black Lava Rock for extra Nitrogen and trace minerals and it sounds perfect for my Sandpit of Death and Despair. Have you ever heard about it or experimented with it? I'm definitely going to try it!
Child labor 😄 We were taught to work in our parents & grandparents gardens from the time we were big enough.
I love how I was raised up..not so crazy about it at the time, wanted to play!
But, I learned to appreciate the learning experience that I was taught at such a young age. Love you're family.. ya'll are awesome!
I was land surveying at page field Airport in fort myers and the guard following me around randomly asked, "Do you want any sugarcane?".. I said "hell ya!"... Turns out the firefighters on site were growing their own Pineapples, Avacados, Sugar Cane, Herbs, etc... Pretty random and cool, and now I have sugar cane!
I'm in the same area. Should I swing by there and see if I can get some canes?
That's really awesome.
@@yahnac4201 I was there working and it's an airport so you wont have access
Score!
I'll never forget my first day working on a CSA farm here in Jacksonville. Francisco was from Puerto Rico and had a friend near you who had some legendary strain from Rico that they used to make rum with. We got the contract to grow cane from the newly renovated Old Ice Packing plant building for the first distillery in St A since prohibition - St Augustine Distillery. "Be at work early I'll be there with the cane he says," and boss shows up with a 22'(I believe? Maybe 32'?) U-Haul to the farm. You couldn't shove a pencil through those layers of cane parallel to the ground top to bottom. He taught me everything I know about it but man. . cut every cane into 3 nodes. Let them callus for three days.. and planted 8 half mile rows. Yeah that was a long week.
Of course I've still got my collection of that strain if you want some next time I see ya let me know.
I would love to have some.
Great story... thanks for sharing!
May I buy some for planting? I live in St Augustine Florida and have been looking for some. My father used to have friends in Elkton and used to go somewhere out there to help grind it and make cane syrup. Please respond. TY
@@donitapearson9480 unfortunately my cultivar is in the smaller volume stage because I moved back home from 3.5years in Oregon. I know others I gave it to that have huge yields, but haven't got cuttings back from them yet. Mine is all mother stock for a few years. I would head to the farmers market at the st. A amphitheatre today or next Saturday. Im sure they have cane it may not be the strain we used, but until I can sell some of mine..
Planting cane! We are sold out, too! Look in Market Bulletin for your state.
Thanks! Good idea. I’m across from you in LA near to Covington/Bush/Slidell. Can you recommend any particular cane variety for me? I’m in sandy piney woods soil.
"Through the wonder of child labor, we can get this done, effortlessly" 🤣
God provided a way to grow natural sugar just about everywhere. 40/1 ratio maple sap to syrup here in 6A. My first job at 12yo was gathering sap in the woods in buckets.
I would love to help with making maple syrup - what a good memory!
You'll still get cavities and diabetes if you eat too much sugar, "natural" or not. Why did God arrange for that? Fructose is fructose, whether it comes in honey, maple syrup, cane sugar, sugar beets, dates etc. Honey does have the advantage of having antibacterial qualities and lasting thousands of years, so that's something. It seems to work as well on wounds as Bacitracin.
I absolutely love the Family effort! Kudos to you and your wife!
❤️ Family Values
I've been trying to tell people this recently! I had sugar cane getting too big and unruly so I cleared some back and had the idea to rough chop them into 6-8 inch sections and throw them into my compost bin, best compost I've ever made was the result. I had 4 bins running next to each other only separated by a couple of weeks each, I only added sugar cane to 1 of the bins and that bin produced hands down the best black gold compost I've ever seen. A few chunks left over on the top had tons of little red wigglers housed in it boring it out, they seem to love the stuff late into the compost process. The bio char I had in this pile even looks different than the bio char I had in the other 3 piles. I highly suggest experimenting with this idea.
One of the other ingredients I had was gigantic jack fruits that had fallen from the tree. I'd just shovel them in whole and jab them up with a shovel. It's the worms in the cane stalks sitting atop the best black gold I've ever seen, making fresh worm castings on top of it that has me excited.
This video gives me flashbacks of when I planted sugarcane as a teenager. I'm from South Louisiana and sugar cane is mostly the main crop. I have probably planted thousands of acres of sugarcane by hand, walking 3 people behind a cane trailer and placing them in rows. The harvester would cut the tops off as it harvested. We would work from as the farmer would say, "from can to can't" I made $1 an hour. Sugar cane is a 3-year crop, so you harvest one field and plant it in another field. Then it's harvested and sold to the sugar mill. We would plant the cane overlapped half with the previous stalk. It takes 3 years for the sugar content to reach its maximum sugar content, after that it can change from year to year. But just for a family, it does not make much of a difference. In colder climates, I think sugar beets can be planted. But I don't know anything about sugar beats or colder climates.
Once a customer in Indonesia brought us to a sugar cane field. The farmers were boiling cane and pressing it and forming the sugar into disc shapes. It was a surreal experience.
That is awesome.
When a dad hands his kid a machete like it's nothing...ya know he's taught them how to use it properly. Good parenting! We need more of that!
There suppose to be a sugar cane to zone 6 as perennial member of the same genus but there very rare Saccharum arundinaceum
Even i managed to grow sugar cane here in Latvia, albeit from seed. Ok it wasnt thick but boy it tasted great.
That’s quite a success, did you feed it with anything in particular?
Where were you able to source seed?
@@TrickleCreekFarm I think it was just fishmeal. Here's the video I made th-cam.com/video/r3sLdkOqDu8/w-d-xo.html I got the seeds from Bulgaria I think, I thought 'now that looks like an interesting challenge'
I didn't know sugar cane was so hardy. I'm trying to grow sugar beets because I didn't think I could grow sugar canes in Oregon. I've never seen it sold at any of my local farmer markets so I'll probably have to hunt for it online. Thanks for all the great information you share. I have all your books on my wish list and maybe I'll get one or more for Christmas.
the "How To Make Everything" TH-cam channel recently tried to make sugar from beets. It was something about "you probably don't know where sugar comes from." Try to find it. It was a really difficult, not entirely satisfactory process.
Me either and I've been growing it for a little over a yr in 9a, we get frost.
Planted 2-types, one died out and the other is thriving, need to propagate, spread it. It's an attractive front yard 'fence'. Crucial for me in N. Commiforia--it is one of my most drought tolerant plants, I didn't even connect it to my drip system and just sporadically hand watered thru hot summer, never showed stress.
Willamette Valley, best grass growers in the world. Im gonna try it.
@@brucetidwell7715 I had read that sugar beets are more effecient at producing sugar than cane is...but have not read anything about the processing differences...
@@Mike80528 I know next to nothing about it except that, in the video, the challenge seemed to be getting all of the "beet" taste out of it. From what I remember from the one time I tasted sugar cane, it has a very neutral sweet flavor, maybe a little bit greenwhich would cook out. However, most of the sugar we eat these days is made from beets so it is possible to get that out.
We just bought a sugar cane at an Asian market and planted it in a pot indoors because the article I read said it was tropical, and we're in zone 8b. So cool you can grow it outdoors, and nice serendipity you just made a video on it! Next year, we'll set out our sugar cane to grow wild and free!
Thanks for all the awesome videos. They are heartwarming and magical!!
Thank you. Good find!
Wow, how big should the pot be? How much space does it need?
@@kristynirizarry7413 I am not sure about the proper diameter of the pot, and since I am just rooting the canes in potting soil to see if they take, I didn't research it well. However, I read that it likes to be in about 3 feet of well drained soil that is nutrient-rich and kept moist. So I have it in a very tall pot with good organic potting soil just to get it rooted over the winter and early spring while it's frosting in my growing zone. If you check back with me I'll let you know how the canes do over the winter.
Someone gave me about a dozen clumps last year around this time, and I've been looking at them for the last few weeks wondering if I should be doing something with them. I'm going to relocate some clumps and divide them, cut up some canes and make a few wagon wheels.
When we were kids we used to toss cow pies at each other, skip em on the pond, etc., but they were never that fresh. We always waited until they were hard and dry. I've never seen anyone handle fresh crap like that.
It's good for the immune system.
@@davidthegood I grew up near a stockyard. I'm wondering if that may have supplied me with enough immunity to make a booster unnecessary. Down around Los Angeles the Bandini Fertilizer company constructed a 100' tall mountain for advertising purposes. Their ads showed a skier "going where only cows had gone before". After they went bankrupt, their smelly mountain remained, and "Bandini Mountain" has since become synonymous with unpleasant things that don't go away.
I am in 7A, and in NJ. I am STOKED, as my local Food Bazaar sells cane year-round!
Know what? I'ma go to Food Bazaar after this fantastic (growth not malignant) doctor's appointment, toute suite, and buy me some cane in appreciation of NATURE. Been drinking another cane's water (mangle rojo), and it might be doing the trick. Thank you again, Mr. DTG and Fam.
Lucky you
I just now planted some fish guts in the middle of my wagon wheel of sugarcane. I hope they like it
Thank you for this information. I will schedule a trip to Florida next Nov. This will work out great in my garden for next fall because I'm not going to use half of my garden area for spring of 2024 as I am giving it a 7 year rest period. God bless you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving---Keep on growing!!!
This is why I like your channel. You teach! This video is a year old but since meeting you and your family, Jodi and I have a renewed Spirit of gardening. Thank you for the instruction. I like the Danny and Wanda wagon wheel method too!
Thank you
Really glad you did this video. I bought some sugarcane from a Mexican store. The first cane was delicious. The rest were infected with that red cane disease.
La Michoacana Meat Market sells them.
I bought some last year in SE Texas. Had that red stripe disease.
love it that you and Danny and Wanda were able to SHARE all the info--- blessings to you and your wife and kiddos--- I'm excited to try Sugar Cane- were in Middle TN`
love the forever family memories you are making together
Child labor rocks!!!
In my case… now I have grandchild labor!!! Lol 😅
I missed the chat. I was driving to the nursing home. Hope I get to the next live.
I got mine from a grower in Florida selling on Etsy and got a friend who grows some to give me a small clump too
You are amazing. I grow up in Ecuador. I live in Ga. So I will try it. Appreciate your kindness showing us that sugar plant. Thank you 🦁🧡
The wagon wheel is genius
You answered some important questions. I do have a three plants from last year and I will plant them as you suggest soon. I have some blue ribbon cane cuttings coming and I will next saturday go to some of the farmers markets that are local to me in Pace, FL and will also try Pensacola.
I am also working on cassava and chinese yams and I still have some jerusalem artichokes to check out.
I will pot some of the blue ribbon canes so that I have an early head start next april or maybe late march. I have have wet lands next to a creek. I had to remove the shade, but it should good to go and that is where all of the my good soil is since I live on a hill.
Bought mine at an Asian grocery store. I think I've seen it in a Latino market too.
Hi David! New sub! Great video. I love sugar cane, however it is really hard to grow here where I live in West Virginia, unless you have a fairly large green house. Like today, June 16, it was 55 this morning. I’m originally from Birmingham and growing up, my brother and I would spend most of the summer in south Mississippi where all our extended family lived. My Grandfather was a farmer and would grow sugar cane every year, and make molasses. Let’s see, I’m 49 now, and my extended family is still growing the cane and making syrup. So they’ve been doing it well over 100 years now, and using the same syrup mill to this day. My brother and I have some wonderful memories growing up and being around that mill. Funny thing, as a kid I would see them putting the finished syrup in what I thought were paint cans. They were gold on the outside and I always thought that was the funniest thing, putting syrup in paint cans. 😄
"Through the wonder of child labor..." 😂😂😂
In Atlanta, you can get sugar can stalks at the Dekalb International Farmers Market in small sections, 18 in. or so. I never noticed the price.
David, how do you press yours?
Next year I will borrow someone else's mill, or buy my own.
Dude doesn't mind getting his hands dirty!!! I love the valuable information...thank you sooooooo much!
Love the idea of chickens clearing your next planting area. Awesome information, thanks for all the tips! Other things! 🤣🤣
Thank you! This video got me off the couch to chop down some sugar cane and give it to the kids. They love it! I planted it a couple years ago thinking it would be a fun garden snack for the kids, but never harvest it. We are in the burbs and we've done what we can with where God has us. Planted the food forest a few years ago and got some chickens last year. Thanks for the motivation👍!
Sadly we can’t grow maple here, the chinooks seemed to of never allowed the trees to grow here, that or it’s too flipping cold!
Honey is what’s possible here and growing stevia if you’re industrious.
Stir sticks for coffee and tea ☕️🫖
In one cane region in my country, they sometimes use the sticks as skewer for their sweet barbeque chicken specialty.
@@TaLeng2023 That sounds awesome mmm
If you live further north, you could plant sugar beets for the same purpose.
I'm in zone 8 on the North Carolina coast. I have been wanting to grow cane but had been told (not from a gardener) that it would not grow in my area, that it would only grow in Florida .. hhmmm now I will be growing it! Thank you!
Oh yeah, it'll grow!
I'm in south Carolina zone 8b grows well for me
@@pondholloworchards same.
@@snarky_farmer what part of sc you in?
@@pondholloworchards Beaufort county area
I may have to attempt it in my “push the zone area” next to my house in zone 6. Keep the good videos coming DTG🤘🏻
Sorry I missed the premiere...you ARE the sugar cane expert now.! We bought some cane from DSH on Etsy about a month or so ago We've been keeping it trimmed down so it doesn't freeze during our premature cold snaps.
I'm learning.
Seriously Love this! Thank you it’s crazy to think how much of this stuff grows in Florida we should literally have Sugar came festivals etc!!!
I'm looking to find some, thanks 👍
Thanks!
Thanks for the info David
I so love sugarcane
Interesting.all my questions answered.thanks!!!
Thank you
Happy Thanksgiving David and Family. May the grace, mercy and love of our most beautiful Lord Jesus Christ richly bless all who believe with peace, understanding, satisfaction, courage, a desire to engage and joy now and forevermore.
Amen - thank you. You too.
I learned a lot (in case I ever move out of zone 4-5). Either way, it’s good to have the knowledge. Thanks for sharing.
Love that cane.i have a few lol
David I just got some red sugarcane locally. I was lucky to find someone close by. It isn't that sweet though. Was wondering if it could be environmental ? Or lack of nutrients ?
Ah this wagon wheel method is so cool! Love this, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for that information! I think I'll love the wagon wheel method as well.
Sweetheart I really like beanies also sugarcane is hard to chew also growing mulberries along the fence with a high strung Elastic Rope
If you need a high food grade crusher contact me brother. God bless the work of your hands.
Hmmm, I think I'm going to use the banana circle method for sugar cane
My cane is in the banana circle
About how much syrup would one of those wagon wheels produce?
I'm right on the boundary between zone 6 and zone 7. I'm quite doubtful that I could grow sugar cane here, but maybe I'll try to find some. I have done sorghum before and have been considering using some saved seeds to grow some more this year. Yacon is another syrup crop that will work in most of the U.S. (with larger yields in warmer areas). I'm trying that this year, but I suspect I'll use it all for fresh eating rather than syrup.
I have found yacon to really like very fertile soil and plenty of water.
Very cool David!! Pensacola area, so going to try this out in my young food forest 👍🌿
Thanks for sharing awesome
You planted it in January? I just planted some in buckets yesterday so I can move them indoors when it starts getting cold. I live in south central Oklahoma zone 7b. Do you know or know of anyone who has grown it indoors with central heatral heating through the winter? Thanks
I moved from the gulf coast this year to 4 hours north. Red clay soil, and I think the purple cane HATES it. Very small growth this year.
Can't you grow something first that'll break the soil and decompose in it?
Time to put some canes down at the farm!
QUESTION … when you clear an area with your chickens, are you providing/baiting the area with any chicken feed, or do they just consuming the available vegetation and bugs … also, approximately how often do you rotate the chicken tractor ? … thanks!
We throw compost here and there inside the tractor - but they happily tear up and eat all the grass without encouragement. We move the tractor when they've totally destroyed the grass. If we wanted grass to grow better, rather than all be eaten, we would move them every couple of days.
@@davidthegood … thank you …
To bad we live in sons 3 I don't think we can grow it here, but thanks for the video, I love it
Super informative, thanks for answering some questions I had been pondering!!
What month is a good time to plant sugarcane
October/nov/december, usually
Does it regrow after being cut? Or are new stalks needed?
5:00 in the video
Yes, it regrows from the roots.
Thanks this was my reminder!!
Hey David, can you cut the buds with just part of the ring where the roots come out off the cane , root the buds and juice the cane? I know it will work if you cut on each side of the root ring and leave about an inch of cane on each side of the root ring but Then you have a bunch of short pieces of cane to juice and it might be sort of hard to juice that way, I have a few short pieces to try and see.Thanks man
I do not know.
What about under a foot or two of hay in 6b? Or am I stuck with maple syrup ?
I bet they would live.
Great video, I will be sharing 😀
you can make piloncillo
How can you press it if you don't have a cane press?
Thank you Sir for the guidance. I absolutely failed at it this year planting in the spring in Central Florida. Not sure if what I did plant will come up later or if it just rotted away. I’ll try again now if I can locate some. Thanks again.
David, if you see this, what is your take on growing Long Grain Rice in Zone 8a (central South Carolina Sandy soil)?? I have grown Sorghum here, it LOVED IT! I didn’t make syrup out of it, I don’t have a press but I did harvest a lot of seed, I planted 15 seeds this spring and I got thousands of seeds back. Chickens loved them lol i belive I saved some for this coming spring. But if you could let me know about the Rice that would be great.
Hello, where did you get the sorghum to grow? Thanks!
Rice used to grow coastal sc
I have never tried growing rice.
@@davidthegood I’ll plant some in the spring and I’ll do my best to keep you posted!
@@donnahoward4236 MIgardener!! When I bought last year it was 50 seeds but he increased seed count on all packs and just released the ‘23 seed catalog and can order.
I just put some in water. Rooted but I put them in the water upside down based on the nodes that came up so just put them in the dirt. Think they'll be ok?
Yes, I prefer to root them in dirt - they should be happy.
What about ants getting in before spring?
Ants have not been a problem for us.
What time,is this time? October/November?
In zone 6, maybe even 5, now, you mentioned sorghum, can you talk about that some more, please? So much else to do, it seems, but I did get garlic in and covered...would love to add sorghum. Ground is already pretty cold, to me, but Jesse has a tractor. : ) hope he likes my plan...
I haven't made sorghum syrup before, but it was very common in Tennessee.
Was the island Kauai??
I’ve seen People selling Sugar Cane on Etsy. Anywhere from $45-$75 depending on how many and what type you want.
I just saw sugar cane selling on Amazon for about $7.00, but I don' t know if it's a reliable seller.
Please answer when you wi reprised it do you water it?
No, we just bury it and it comes up in spring. There is enough moisture in the soil to keep it through winter.
Roots -- about how deep do the sugar cane roots grow? I understand it to be both a heavy feeder and liking a good bit of moisture. I'm wondering how near our septic leach field would be safe (for the leach field!). Any thoughts? Thanks so much!!!
I'm not sure, but when I pull it up, it's not too hard to yank. I would just go for it.
@@davidthegood thanks! Out chicken yard is actually directly over the field, and I'm looking for ways to "garden" there for both their health and ours! Appreciate all your videos. Blessings to you & the fam. :o)
I’m in south Florida. 10b. I know it’s harvesting season you say. But what about us no-frost areas? Can we harvest randomly throughout the year?
I planted maybe like 5 months ago. It’s about 5 or 6 feet tall Should I harvest or wait?
Yes, you can harvest whenever you like.
Do you treat sorghum like you do sugar cane?
David in the tropics (Panama) is it best to plant at the begining of the rainy season or at another time?
Beginning! That's when we put in most of our crops and all our fruit trees.
@@davidthegood Great! That is what I thought. Thank you for all of your help - your books and videos are great!!
Etsy sells it
Why not get a pooper scooper?
What month is it
Anyone know where to get it in the Mobile, Theodore, Grand Bay area in Alabama? And, does it mind soggy ground? My yard can turn into a wet, sink in the mud mess sometime.
It will take a lot of water without dying.
@@davidthegood Cool. Thanks.
Wait what! I see a members only post coming soon hint hint
You’re really on a sugar cane and cassava kick
Totally off topic but I just learned about supplementing soil with Black Lava Rock for extra Nitrogen and trace minerals and it sounds perfect for my Sandpit of Death and Despair. Have you ever heard about it or experimented with it? I'm definitely going to try it!
I have not tried it, but sounds nutritious.
Dear Dave , can you send me a few sugar cane starts 🙏💋🙏💋🙏💋 Been looking for awhile for good cane !!!! I'll pay for the shipping !!!!😢
Do u think it can grow in Canada??? I'm jus above Minnesota...
No, I don't think so. You have maple trees and sugar beets - I would try those.
@@davidthegood ok thanks
These climate zones you are referring to, which scale is that?
USDA Growing Zones
@@davidthegood thanks.
Can I grow sugar cane in 6b?
Yes, the cold hardy variety Saccharum arundinaceum can be grown as an ornamental. It's not worth it if you aim to harvest the sugar.
I give it away a lot. I’m in 33935.