Abstract
Lodging is a serious problem in plant growth, especially in crops growth of the natural habitat. In order to determine the influence of lodging on the growth characters of sweet sorghum, plants grown in natural saline-alkali environment were used to investigate the fresh weight, dry weight, sugar content in the stalks and the photosynthesis index of salt tolerant crop sweet sorghum. Results showed that lodging significantly reduced the growth of sweet sorghum, the fresh weight and dry weight was only 28.3% and 22.5% of the normal plants when lodging occurred after 49 days. Lodging also reduced the stalks sugar content of sweet sorghum, the stalk sugar content of lodged plants was only 45.4% of that in the normal plants, when lodging occurred for 49 days. Lodging reduced the growth and sugar content by reducing the photosynthesis parameters of sweet sorghum grown in the saline-alkali field, thus, affected the accumulation of photosynthate. Interestingly, with the extension of the lodging time, lodging led to a decrease in photosynthetic rate of sweet sorghum mainly due to non-stomatal factors.
Highlights
Soil salinization is an increasing problem throughout the world
In order to analyze the effect of lodging on the growth and the stalk yield of sweet sorghum grown in the salinealkali field, the whole plant above ground was harvested, the fresh and dry weight of the individual sweet sorghum plant was determined at different times (September 2, September 23 and October 14) after lodging at August 26 due to heavy rainfall and wind
The results showed that, after lodging occurred, the growth of sweet sorghum was inhibited when compared with the normal plants, and the inhibitory effect becomes more pronounced as the lodging time increases
Summary
Soil salinization is an increasing problem throughout the world. Nearly 10% of the soils were affected by salt in the world and there are 50% in irrigated land [1, 2]. Lodging will be affected by plant's own and environmental factors, high plant density and high level of nitrogen fertilization could directly influence the growth of crops, thereby reducing the lodging resistance of crops [7, 8], the lodging resistance is related to the developmental stages of crops [7]. The environmental factors, such as rain, wind and together could cause crop lodging [9], crop lodging mainly occurred in the rainy season with wind. It remains unknown that whether or not the growth and the yield of sweet sorghum decreased by lodging when grown in the saline-alkali field
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