Effect of Planting Dates on the Growth, Yield and Quality of Three Cultivars of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)

Abstract

Abstract A field study was carried out during the spring season of 2017 in the fields of a farmer in the district of Habbaniyah, which is 70 km west of Baghdad, to study the effect of three planting dates (15 March, 1 April and 15 April) on the growth, yield and quality of three cultivars of sorghum (Babel, Warka and Rabeh). The implementation of the experiment was according to a randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with split-plot arrangement with three replications. The results of the experiment indicated that the cultivar Rabeh was superior in most of the studied traits such as leaf area (3968 cm2), number of grains per head (2659.00 grains head-1), weight of grains per head (63.41 g) and grain yield (7.44 ton ha-1), while the Babel variety was superior in the percentage of protein (12.21%). As for planting dates, the date of April 1 was superior in most of the studied traits, such as leaf area (3635.33 cm2), number of grains per head (2670.33 grains head-1), weight of grains per head (62.12 g), grain yield (7.55 ton ha-1) and the percentage of protein (11.49%).