Abstract:
During or closely following harvesting of the cane plant, each plant is trimmed by removing the nodes and associated leaves, thereby forming raw tubes from each remaining internode segment. The raw tubes are artificially dried and then exposed to artificial light, to produce finished tubes. The improved process reduces the time between the harvesting of a plant to the completion of a finished tube, from a period that is typically measured in months to a period measured in weeks. Furthermore, it has been found that the artificial drying is so effective that harvesting and processing of the reed cane can continue throughout the year, thereby increasing productivity and responsiveness to fluctuations in demand.