Florida and Sugarcane

Florida was an interesting place, they had the best ground I had ever seen it is the stuff that we sell as potting mix for gardeners. Seriously this soil is so high in organic matter that it burns, and they grow cane without any applied nitrogen, the down side is that it oxidizes and they are losing soil at an alarming rate. The other big problem is that under the soil is granite it looks like slabs of concrete have been laid under the soil, when it gets that bad they have to walk away. These guys also pre harvest burn which I found a little odd given that their soil is so vulnerable to burning. They also rotate with rice and veggies, and like Louisiana there water issues revolve around lowering the water table to control moisture, and they have a series of canals that they pump into with massive pumps that push water into that ends up in the everglades .Weeds are a big problem here also and the biggest is Bermuda grass which is very hard to kill without also affecting sugarcane production, it seems that although we seem to be worlds apart we seem to share the same sought of challenges.You also have to watch where you walk around the headland ditches this was one of two gators we saw in about 5 minutes.