Biomass and Dry Matter Yield Potential of Some Early Sweet Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor var. saccharatum (L.) Mohlenbr.) Genotypes

Abstract

Sweet sorghum plant is a warm season annual crop. It can be used for animal feeding in the one-cut agricultural system. Sweet sorghum is grown for the purpose of fresh and dry grass and for silage production. Biomass of sweet sorghum is nutritive due to sweet sorghum stalk contains 15-20% sugar. The study aimed to determine biomass, dry matter yield and some agricultural characteristics of some early sweet sorghum genotypes. Research was carried out during the second crop-growing season of 2016 at the Eyyubiye campus of experimental area of the Harran University in Sanliurfa, Turkiye. The experiment was designed as complete randomized blocks design with four replicates. This study utilized 12 early sweet sorghum genotypes as crop material. The experiment investigated some yield characteristics such as cluster formation period, plant height, stalk diameter, stalk ratio, leaf ratio, cluster ratio, dry matter yield and biomass yield. Results showed significant differences between the genotypes for tested characteristics (P≤0.01). Cluster formation period values ranged from 54.25 to 69.00 day, plant height from 252.25 to 340.75 cm, stalk diameter from 19.15 to 25.60 mm, stalk ratio from 75.72% to 86.75%. Leaf ratio values varied between 8.83% and 15.98%, cluster ratio between 4.40% and 10.31%. Dry matter yield values were between 2918.12 and 8456.25 kg da-1, biomass yield values between 9283.5 and 18400.0 kg da-1. Findings revealed that UNLY-hybrid-4, Rox Orange, Blue Ribben, and Colman sweet sorghum cultivars gave higher values than others in terms of plant height, dry matter yield and biomass yield.