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noun
A new shoot or sprout springing from the base of a crop plant, especially sugar cane, after cropping.
‘Mother pineapple plants produce two types of suckers - ratoons emerge from below the soil; other suckers develop in the leaf axils.’- ‘The plantation would provide seed, ratoons (cane striplings), tools, fertilizer, irrigation, and so on, and would pay a stipulated price for delivered cane.’
sprout, offshoot, scion, sucker, bud, spear, runner, tendril, sprig, cutting
intransitive verb
[no object]1(of sugar cane) produce ratoons.
‘Farmers can also prevent pests and disease build-up in cotton growing by avoiding ratooning.’- ‘Hybridizations were made using ratooning plants from the selected individuals in each generation.’
- 1.1with object Cut down (a plant) to cause it to produce ratoons.as adjective ratooned ‘ratooned plants produce a much earlier crop’
- ‘The practice of ratooning exploits the perennial tendencies of some land-races and cultivars of sorghum.’
Origin
Mid 17th century from Spanish retoño ‘a sprout’.
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