EFFECT OF FERTILITY LEVELS ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF MULTI-CUT FORAGE SORGHUM GENOTYPES

DURGESH KUMAR AND P. C. CHAPLOT
Department of Agronomy
Rajasthan College of Agriculture,
Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture & Technology,
Udaipur-313001 (Rajasthan), India
*(e-mail : pcchaplot@gmail.com)
(Received : 14 May 2020; Accepted : 24 June 2020)

SUMMARY

A field experiment was conducted during the zaid season of 2013 at Udaipur, Rajasthan on clay loam soil to assess the effect of fertility levels viz., control, 50% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), 75% RDF and 100% RDF (80 Kg N + 40 Kg P2O5 + 40 Kg K2O/ha) on multi-cut genotypes of forage sorghum (SPH 1697, SPH 1698, CSH 20 MF, CSH 24 MF and SSG 59-3). Among genotypes, SPH 1697 proved significantly superior in respect to plant height, stem girth, leaves/plant, fresh leaf and stem weight/plant and dry matter accumulation/plant during 1st and 2nd cut. These improvements in growth led the genotype SPH 1697 to produce significantly higher green and dry fodder yield during both the cuts over genotypes SPH 1698, CSH 20 MF, CSH 24 MF and SSG 59-3. The maximum plant height, stem girth, leaves/plant, fresh leaf and stem weight/plant, dry matter accumulation/plant, green and dry fodder yield were recorded at 100% RDF application which were significantly higher than lower doses of fertilizer and control during both the cuts.

Key words:Multi-cut sorghum, genotypes, fertility levels, growth, fodder yield

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