Sugarcane in California and Alabama

Within the U.S., sugarcane has been commercially grown in four states, namely Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, and Texas. With renewed interest in sugarcane as a bioenergy crop, it appears that two additional states could become large-scale sugarcane growers, namely California and Alabama.

California. This state is already growing a significant amount of cane in the Imperial Valley, and has shown interest in experimenting with cane in the San Joaquin Valley as far north as Fresno. Of course, cane cannot compete with high value crops in the San Joaquin Valley, but there may be specific locations and/or situations where growing a versatile energy crop that has a low maintenance requirement would make sense. Whether cane is capable of being grown as far north as Fresno isn't even the issue. There is no doubt that it can. The minimum winter temperatures there are no different than those in the north end of Louisiana's sugar belt (just south of Alexandria). The Hmong community has been marketing sugarcane stalks grown around Fresno for years, and the varieties they use look to be the more tropical large-barreled chewing cane types that they probably brought with them from SE Asia.

Alabama. This state is thinking very seriously about getting into energy cane production. From a temperature standpoint, there should be no problem in growing sugarcane, particularly in the southern end of the State. If Alabama makes a commitment to produce ethanol from sugarcane by building a plant, they will be obligated to start increasing sugarcane quickly and substantially. This will be interesting to watch.