Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

First published 4th July 2026

This post complements this earlier one, in which I listed three ways to propagate sugarcane: in water; planted vertically in soil as with a cutting; and buried shallowly and horizontally in the ground.

There I also wrote a bit on the structure of sugarcane to help understand how these methods work, if you’d like to go back and read that first.

This photo is of one of the vertically planted setts (stem cuttings) in that post, which went on to produce an 800 mm high shoot at time of selling it:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

I don’t have “after” photos of the setts in water in that post, but here is a different, longer piece which has been sitting in a bucket of water since 1st May 2026.

This time I don’t have a “before” photo! But on 1st May it was nothing more than a stem with dormant buds, much like this:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

By 28th May 2026 it had grown roots and a bud was awakening:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

By today, 4th July 2026, it looked like this:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

The roots are quite impressive and there are two developing shoots:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

This very piece is ready for a new home and is listed here.

Now there’s a story behind this piece!

When a local customer now-plant-swapping-pal — hi Steve! — came by on that 1st May 2026 for yacón, and saw this sugarcane growing, I offered to cut some then and there on the spot.

We’re standing there stripping and eating it together, and he could not believe how tasty and juicy this was! He said he had eaten plenty of sugarcane up in Queensland in his time, and declared this tastier even than those. He said he never would have thought he’d ever taste such sugarcane in Wollongong!

Of course he took some away with him, and this very piece for sale is a leftover piece from the, um, sampling session that day. So I stuck it in a bucket of water to see if it would root and shoot outdoors, over winter — and it did!

I had another, longer piece again that I had intended to eat later, but again as an experiment thought to try the horizontal growing method over winter instead.

I cut it into three pieces and buried them shallowly in a hedge bag that had been quietly converting green waste into compost awaiting a day of need, and here was that day!

I covered the surface with coarsely shredded sugarcane leaves and left them be.

A month later (1st June 2026) I noticed shoots popping out:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

(The plant at bottom left funnily enough is yacón. It put itself there.)

Closeups:


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos


copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos