Effect of planting density and levels of nitrogen on yield and yield attributes of sweet Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) Varieties

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the research farm of A field experiment was conducted during rainy season, 2015 at the Research cum-Instructional Farm, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidylaya, Raipur (Chhattisgarh) to assess the potentiality of sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] varieties under different planting densities and levels of N fertilizers. The results revealed that yield and yield attributes were significantly influenced by varieties, levels of nitrogen and planting densities. Sweet sorghum variety SSV-84 registered significantly higher grain yield (16.64 q ha-1) with higher yield attributes, green biomass yield (24.80 t ha-1) and dry biomass yield (5.93t ha-1) compared to CSV 24SS but Harvest Index is higher in CSV 24SS. Plant density of 13.33 plants m-2 gave higher grain yield (18.33 q ha-1) with higher green biomass yield (25.77 t ha-1) and dry biomass yield (6.15 t ha-1) in comparison to lower planting density but yield attributes viz., No of grain/cob(1421.20), test weight (23.40 g), grain yield plant-1(19.97 g) and Harvest index (19.38) is higher in planting density of 11.11 plants m-2.. Among different levels of N fertilizers, application of nitrogen at 120 kg N ha-1 recorded the highest grain yield (20.13 q ha-1) with higher yield attributes, green biomass yield (27.94 t ha-1) and dry biomass yield (6.70 t ha-1) are significantly higher than other levels of nitrogen but Harvest index is recorded highest in control plot for Nitrogen.