Decline in the growth of a sugarcane crop with age under high input conditions

In order to gain a greater mechanistic understanding of the factors likely to be associated with the onset of the RGP, the relative time of lodging, specific leaf nitrogen (SLN), number of stalks and seasonal temperature were all considered individually. Whilst declining SLN and increasing stalk loss were associated with reductions in growth during the later periods of crop growth, it is likely that lodging also contributed to the widespread slowdown in biomass accumulation, whereas photosynthetic stress, as a result of extreme temperatures, did not play a substantive role in reducing growth.