EFFECT OF FERTILITY LEVELS ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF MULTICUT FORAGE SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR (L.) MOENCH) GENOTYPES

EFFECT OF FERTILITY LEVELS ON GROWTH, YIELD AND QUALITY OF MULTICUT FORAGE SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR (L.) MOENCH) GENOTYPES

D.S. RANA, BHAGAT SINGH, K. GUPTA, A. K. DHAKA* AND S. K. PAHUJA

Forage Section, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding

* Department of Agronomy

CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar

(Email: bsdahiya@gmail.com)

(Received: 1 October 2013; Accepted:25 October 2013)

SUMMARY

A field experiment was conducted at main Forage Research Area, CCS HAU, HisarĀ  with three multicut genotypes of sorghum (SPH 1622, CSH 20MF and CSH 24MF) were grown with four fertility levels viz. control, 50% recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), 100% RDF (100 kg N+30 kg P2O5/ha) and 150% RDF. The plant height, green fodder and dry matter yield of multicut sorghum genotypes were significantly influenced by different genotypes and fertility levels. The green fodder and dry matter yield of CSH 20 MF were superior over SPH 1622 and CSH 24 MF on the basis of total of two cuts. The maximum plant height, number of tillers, green fodder and dry matter yield were recorded at 150% RDF, which was significantly higher than lower doses of fertilizer during both the cuts. The highest crude protein yield and digestible dry matter (DDM) were also recorded at 150% RDF.

Key words: multicut sorghum, fertility levels, green fodder and dry matter yield.

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