Impact of Sowing Dates on the Growth and Grain Yield Traits of Sorghum Genotypes

Abstract

Sorghum crop is an excellent source of food and fodder. Well understanding of climate change effects will assist scientists for guiding farmers about crop management decisions to mitigate those hazards. The field experiments were carried out at Students’ Experimental Farm, Sindh Agriculture University; Tandojam Pakistan in three replicated RCBD with net plot size 20 m². The genotypes Bale II, PSC-1010, Acho Kartuho and Sprout were sown with four sowing dates (18^th April, 03^rd May, 17^th May and 31^st May) to determine sowing dates’ impact. The results for genotypes, sowing dates and their interactions had highly significant effects at (P<0.05) on most of traits. The genotype Bale II recorded maximum nodes plant^-1, heads plant^-1, head length (cm) and grain weight plant^-1 (g). The results for sowing dates also showed that maximum heads plant^-1 and head length (cm) were gained under the sowing date of 18^th April. The maximum nodes plant^-1 recorded with sowing date of 03^rd May. The maximum grains plant^-1 and grain weight plant^-1 (g) recorded under the sowing date of 17^th May. Whereas, interactive effect of genotypes and sowing dates revealed maximum nodes plant^-1 found with sowing date of 18^th April in genotype Bale II. The highest heads plant^-1 and head length (cm) was gained with sowing date of 18^th April and 31^st May in genotype Acho Kartuho respectively. The maximum grains plant^-1 and grain weight plant^-1 (g) obtained with sowing date of 17^th May in genotype Bale II. It is concluded from the results that genotype Bale II performed well with most of traits. The study unearthed new research areas that have significant effects on sorghum planting establishment to develop enhanced ethanol production to overcome the global energy crisis through safest source of biofuel.