PubMed · 2026-07-04
Applying vinasse (a byproduct of sugar ethanol production) to sugarcane fields boosted plant growth and yield by 32%, but caused the plants to store less sucrose, reducing the industrial quality of the crop. The trade-off reveals that vinasse shifts how sugarcane allocates carbon: toward building more plant tissue rather than accumulating sugar.
Vinasse-treated plots yielded 101.69 tonnes of cane per hectare versus 77.03 in controls, a 32% increase in biomass.
Sucrose content dropped sharply under vinasse: 16.06% vs. 20.60% in controls, with total reducing sugars falling from 42.31% to 25.73%.
Vinasse raised soil pH from 5.33-5.88 to 6.26-6.73 and boosted potassium nearly fourfold (5.54 vs. 1.46 mmol/dm³), driving dynamic changes in nitrogen-fixing and phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria over time.
