Glucose and fructose are the reducing sugars present in cane juice. A lower reducing sugar value indicates that much of the sugar has converted to sucrose and the cane is ready to harvest.

Criteria for harvesting sugarcane include; crop age, yellowing, and drying of leaves, metallic sound when tapped, glistening sugar crystal when slant cut the cane, etc. Some other quality parameters taken under consideration for sugarcane maturity are juice Brix value, juice sucrose or pol percentage, reducing sugar, purity coefficient, commercial cane sugar etc.

Brix measures total solid content of juice i.e. sugar and non-sugar and is measured using hand refractometer Brix or HR Brix. The HR Brix meter has graduation from 0 to 32%. The narrow range of brix value between top and bottom cane indicates mature cane while wider range indicates the cane is yet to mature. If the bottom cane has higher brix value then generally the cane is said to be mature and reversion of sugar is taken place. Maturity indicator is when brix ratio is nearly 1 and brix value 18-20%.

The cane sucrose content is also known as juice sucrose percentage and it is determined using Polarimeter, hence called pol percentage. Sucrolyser is another instrument available for determining sucrose percentage in juice. Sucrose percentage considered for cane maturity is > 15%.

Purity coefficient of cane juice refers to the percentage of sucrose out of total solid content in the juice. A sugarcane crop is considered fit if the cane attained minimum 16% sucrose and 85% purity.

Commercial cane sugar (CCS) refers to the recoverable sugar percentage in the cane.