An Amis aboriginal from Hualien County who goes by three names has impressed his neighbors by growing a three-storey-high sugarcane. Tseng De-tsai’s aboriginal name is Namohow, which means “well-behaved boy,” but in his hometown of Kuangfu Township, almost everyone knows him as “Good Old Chap,”which in Chinese is a near-homophone of his aboriginal name.
Tseng’s sugarcane now stands 10m tall, the height of a three-story building. It grows along side a betel nut tree and is now seven years old, a remarkable age for this type of plant.
In order to protect the sugarcane from typhoons, Tseng has tied it to a bamboo scaffold. Every couple of days he climbs up his ladder and helps the sugarcane “undress” by picking off its old leaves, and spreads rice bran fertilizer around the base. He says that the sugarcane is almost seven years old now, and that shoots around the main trunk can be picked, fried and eaten.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching
照片:自由時報記者花孟璟
A sugarcane expert said that regular sugarcane or edible red sugarcane are typically ready to harvest after about one or one and a half years. Usually they grow to between two and three meters tall, depending on the amount of fertilizer used. The expert added that he had never seen anything like Tseng’s seven-year-old sugarcane.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
有位住在花蓮的阿美族人不但有三個名字,而且更讓他的鄰居嘆為觀止的,是他有辦法種出三層樓高的甘蔗。曾德財老先生的原住民阿美族母語念法為「NAMOHOW」,意思是「很乖的孩子」,但是家鄉在光復鄉的他,所有認識她的人都只管叫他「那麼好阿公」,因為母語的「NAMOHOW」聽起來像漢語的「那麼好」。
曾德財的甘蔗高達3層樓、約10公尺,和一株老欉檳榔樹種在一起,一種就是7年,相當罕見!
那麼好阿公為了防颱,還用繩子架起竹子支撐,每隔幾天阿公就搬梯子爬上樹,幫甘蔗「脫衣服」,拔掉老舊葉片,而且甘蔗旁還撒了很多米糠等有機肥,照顧很細心。他說,甘蔗已經種了7年,老甘蔗頭旁會一直長甘蔗筍,可以炒甘蔗筍來吃。
專家表示,榨糖白甘蔗或食用的紅甘蔗,一般栽種1年或1年半即可收割,通常能長到2公尺半至3公尺高,到底能長到多高,要看肥份夠不夠。專家說,曾阿公這樣的宿根蔗可以長7年,他也沒見過。
(自由時報記者花孟璟)
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