THE PRESENT work was conducted at Kom Ombo Agricultural Research Station, (latitude of 24o 28′ N and longitude of 32o 57′ E), Aswan Governorate, in the two seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 to study the effect of storage period before crushing for (0, 2, 4 and 6 days) on juice quality characteristics of three promising sugar cane varieties (G.84-47, G.2003-47 and C.57-14) in addition to the commercial variety G.T.54/9 (C9). The experimental design was randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications.
Results indicated that brix and reducing sugars percentages tended to increase as storage periods increased up to six days before crushing. On the other hand, juice extraction, sucrose, purity, richness and sugar recovery percentages were decreased as the storage period was prolonged.
Sugar cane varieties significantly differed in all studied traits. In both seasons G.T.54-9 variety recorded the highest values of juice extraction and richness percentages, while G.84-47 and G.2003-47 varieties gave the highest brix and purity percentages, respectively. Means while G.84-47 and G.T.54-9 varieties recorded the highest values of sucrose percentages in 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively. Interaction between the two factors markedly affected the rate of deterioration in all studied traits.
These results might be helpful to decrease sucrose losses when delivery delayed of sugar cane, with assessment of optimum storage period. It is recommended that cane meantime should be delivered as early as possible to sugar mill to minimize sugar losses.