ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1558071
Effects of thiamethoxam insecticide on sugarcane plant growth under chemical ripening at early and late harvest
Provisionally accepted
Paula Deise1Josiane Viveiros2
Lucas Moraes Jacomassi2
MARCELA OLIVEIRA2Letusa Momesso3Gabriela Ferraz De Siqueira2
Jorge Martinelli2Rodrigo Foltran2Rogério Peres Soratto2Leila Luci Dinardo-Miranda4
Carlos Alexandre Costa Crusciol2*- 1Sugarcane Research Unit, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Houma, Louisiana, United States
- 2Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil
- 3Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil
- 4Centro Avançado de Pesquisa Tecnológica do Agronegócio de Cana, Instituto Agronômico de Campinas (IAC), Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil
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Chemical ripeners are applied to ensure the quality of the final product in sugarcane production, especially under unfavorable conditions for sucrose accumulation. In addition, bioactivators such as the insecticide thiamethoxam can stimulate plant development. Thus, the application of thia-methoxam to sugarcane regrowth associated with ripener may have phytotonic effects and im-prove sugarcane quality and yield. The aim of this study was to understand the effects of thia-methoxam foliar application to sugarcane ratoon treated with trinexapac-ethyl as a ripener. Four management strategies (treatments) were introduced and tested in six field experiments conducted across the early and late harvest seasons In six field experiments in the early and late harvest seasons, four management strategies were tested: no chemical application (control), application of 250 g a.i ha -1 trinexapac-ethyl Formatado: Sobrescrito (0.4 L ha -1 of com-mercial product) as a ripener, application of thiamethoxam 100 g a.i ha -1 (0.4 kg ha - 1 of commercial product) as a bioactivator, and application of ripener and bioactivator. Thiamethoxam application increased stalk yield by 25 Mg ha -1 compared with the control, and joint application with ripener increased sugar yield by up to 4.5 Mg ha -1 due to an increase in total recoverable sugar (TRS) of up to 11% compared with the control (139.9 Kg Mg -1 ). The increases in biomass in response to thiamethoxam application increased potential energy production (MWh) by 26% compared with the treatments without insecticide.
Keywords: biostimulant, Phytotonic effect, Plant regulators, Saccharum spp., Sugarcane yield
Received: 09 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deise, Viveiros, Moraes Jacomassi, OLIVEIRA, Momesso, Ferraz De Siqueira, Martinelli, Foltran, Soratto, Dinardo-Miranda and Crusciol. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carlos Alexandre Costa Crusciol, Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, São Paulo State University, Botucatu, Brazil
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