EVALUATION OF SOME EXOTIC SORGHUM LINES FOR THEIR RESISTANCE TO SESAMIA CRETICA LED. INFESTATION AND YIELDING POTENTIAL

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate 13 exotic sorghum lines and Dorado (check variety) for their resistance to infestation by the pink stem borer Sesamia cretica under natural and artificial infestation and yielding potential during 2010 and 2011 seasons. The results revealed that two lines (ICSR-92003 and ICSB-88005) were resistant to S. cretica under natural infestation and one line (ICSR-92003) was under artificial infestation. Line ICSR-92003 possessed high resistance to this insect (18.62% infested plants and 3.39% dead hearts) with high yielding potential (24.08 ardab/feddan), followed by line ICSV-273 possessed moderate resistance to this insect (26.60% infested plants and 7.81% dead hearts) with high yielding (23.14 ardab/feddan). The tallest line was ICSV-273 (207cm), while earliest flowering lines (days to 50% heading) were BTX2-1, BTX409, BTXTSC20, ICSB-88015 and ICSR-92003 (70, 70, 70.5, 71 and 71 days, respectively). The heaviest grains was obtained from lines ICSR-93004, ICSR-93001 and ICSR- 92003 (38.98, 37.62 and 36.88 gm, respectively). The correlation coefficient between plant infestation percentage of S. cretica and yield was negative significant (-0.5363*) and between dead hearts percentage of this insect and yield was negative significant (-0.6034*). Line ICSR-92003 proved high resistance to S. cretica and high potentiality, while lines ICSV-273 and ICSR- 93001 showed moderate resistance to this insect and relatively high potentiality. I