sugarcane produce more tiller because of that we cannot maintain equal spacing hence how we can calculate crop growth rate for sugarcane when we do research on different spacing
Tiller density would affect sugar content of shaded portions and harvest labour. At high density tiller number would decrease and less ligth reaches the base. Crop growth rate should then be scaled to harvest index per labour unit.
As indicated by former colleagues, spacing do affect growth rate and productivity. Identifying the optimum spacing is therefore of relevance. Besides the practical difficulties that may arise, the procedure adopted on a per unit basis is by no means affected by the spacing per se. Spacing definitely impact on response mostly govern by limitations of resources to 'feed' the cane e.g. sunlight and also on the genetics of the variety being studied. There exists a strong interaction between variety and spacing. It is also known that spacing also affect the quality of cane at harvest.
if you want to measure dry matter, it is best to calculate in square meters(as others mentioned). but if you want to calculate sugar yield on basis of dry matter it will be other subject. it must be determined sugar content in each pattern of spacing.
From one square meter area three plants were cut periodically at 60, 90, 120, 150, 180 DAP and also during physiological maturity for above ground dry matter partitioning. Plant was separated into leaf and stalk. These separated leaf and stalk were cut into the small pieces followed by sun drying and final weight was recorded after oven drying at 65 °C until the constant weight could attained. The mean dry weight per plant (g) was recorded by accumulating the weight of leaf and stalk together and converted into (t/ha).