Root crops and their biomass potential in Florida
Root and tuber crops are of particular interest as biofuel crops because of their ability to concentrate and store fermentables including starch and sugars, in enlarged organs at or below the soil surface. In Florida, harvest index, the storage organ biomass divided by total plant biomass, of sweet potato, fodder beet, cassava and potato has approached 0.80. Chicory, fodder beet, cassava and sweet potato produced a total plant yield of 16.0, 14.1, 11.4 and 11.3 t/ha, respectively. Since the crops vary for time to maturity and storage organ chemical composition, a conventional unit to equate yield differences is kilocalorie (kcal) production/ha/day. Of the warm season crops, sweet potato and cassava roots produced an estimated 32 and 14 x 10/sup 4/ kcal/ha/day, respectively. Chinese radish and rutabaga roots produced 18 and 17 x 10/sup 4/ kcal/ha/day. Thus, a year round average of as much as 25 x 10/sup 4/ kcal/ha/day has been demonstrated. In conjunction with the total potential biomass production by a plant, root and tuber crops may be able to surpass grain crops in fermentable productivity on a temporal and spacial basis. The factors that will contribute to this include developing the appropriate cultural practices for biomass production along with breeding and selecting for adaptability and favorable harvest index. Since many of these crops have been neglected from a research standpoint, there is little doubt that improvements can be made by further work. 27 references.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville
- OSTI ID:
- 7034287
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8210267-
- Journal Information:
- Soil Crop Sci. Soc. Fla., Proc.; (United States), Vol. 42; Conference: Annual meeting Soil and Crop Science Society of Florida, Tallahassee, FL, USA, 20 Oct 1982
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
BEETS
PRODUCTIVITY
CASSAVA
POTATOES
RADISHES
TUBERS
YAMS
BIOMASS PLANTATIONS
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUES
FLORIDA
INFORMATION NEEDS
PLANT BREEDING
RESOURCE POTENTIAL
STORAGE
VEGETABLES
FEDERAL REGION IV
FOOD
NORTH AMERICA
PLANTS
USA
140504* - Solar Energy Conversion- Biomass Production & Conversion- (-1989)