Initial material for the development of sweet sorghum varieties and hybrids

Abstract

Sweet sorghum is an alternative forage crop in some agricultural regions of the country. It is widely used for the production of green mass, hay, haylage, grass chop, i.e. it provides the necessary complex of feed for raising farm animals and poultry. The current study was carried out in the period from 2018 to 2019 on the experimental plot of the FSBSI ARC “Donskoy” located in the southern part of the Rostov region. The soil of the experimental plot was ordinary carbonate blackearth (chernozem). The objects of study were 210 collection samples of sweet sorghum. The period ‘sprouts – full maturity’ of the collection samples varied from 80 to 127 days. The early ripening group (which reached full maturity in 80–101 days) included 61.4% (129 pcs) of the studied sweet sorghum samples. The samples ‘K-1437/2’, ‘K-1502/1’, ‘Sakharnoe 7’, ‘K-1809’, ‘Moment’, ‘Sahara’, ‘Simon’ with 82-86 days of vegetation period were identified as the sources of early maturity. According to sugar content in stem sap, the collection samples varied from 5 to 22%. There was identified high (15.1–19.0%) sugar content in 28.1% (59 pcs) of the sorghum samples and very high (more than 19.1%) sugar content in 5.7% (12 pcs) of the sorghum samples. The samples ‘K-2027/2’, ‘Orangevoe uluchshennoe 01’, ‘K-153’, ‘K-1373’, ‘Simon’, ‘Szeegedibanne’ were identified as the samples with high sugar content (21–22%). The samples ‘Bizon’, ‘Zubr’, ‘Mamont’, ‘K-668/2’, ‘SPV-441’, ‘Sacca line’, which had 14–18 leaves, were identified as the sources of high foliage. The samples ‘OS-20’, ‘Zernogradskoe 1UK’, ‘Yarik’, ‘Mamont’, ‘Leoti Red’, ‘Sacca line’ were identified according to high leaf area, exceeding that of the standard variety by 102–159 cm2.