Productivity and the Qualitative Response of Sorghum to Different Planting Patterns and Various Cultivars

Abstract

Planting patterns and different cultivars play a significant role in forage crops quality and productivity. Therefore, we conducted a field experiment under different planting patterns and cultivars to evaluate sorghum crop yield, yield components, and quality at Agronomic Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan, in 2015. The experiment consists of three sorghum cultivars (Jawar 2002, Sorghum-2011, and JS-2002) with a seed rate of 75 kg ha^-1 at different planting patterns (P1=60 cm × 20 cm, P2=50cm × 24 cm, and P3=340 cm × 30 cm). Results showed that sorghum 2011 resulted in higher growth and qualitative attributes than other cultivars. For example, increase in plant height (237.11 cm), dry weight plant^-1 (40.61 g), forage yield (57.66 ton ha^-1), crude protein contents (6.12 %), fiber contents (32.12 %) and ash contents (8.73%) was observed in sorghum 2011 as compared to other cultivars. Whereas, among planting pattern P₃ (40 x 30 cm ) produced maximum plant height (236.33 cm), leaves plant^-1( 13.66), stem diameter (1.09 cm), forage yield (55.52 ton ha^-1), dry matter yield (18.53 ton ha^-1) and crude protein contents (6.06 %) as compared to P1 and P2. This study suggested that the cultivar sorghum 2011 with a planting pattern of 40 x 30 cm is a promising option to improve yield, yield components and quality of sorghum crop.