Yield performance of Sorghum Ratoon-1 as affected by different dosages of N fertilization

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)Moench) is a promising crop for the production of food, feed and bioethanol. Sorghum plants also can grow in different wide ranges of soil, and they can be ratooned. A field trial was conducted to study the response of different cultivars of sorghum ratoon-1 to dosages of N fertilization applied on first-planted sorghum plants. The experiment was done in Way lima, Pesawaran of Lampung Province, Indonesia, in 2020. Treatments were arranged factorially in a randomized block design with three replications. The first factor was sorghum genotypes, including Numbu, P/I WHP, GH-1, GH-6, Talaga Bodas, UPCA, Super-1, and Super-2, while the second factor was N fertilization levels consisting of 0, 75, 150, 225 and 300 kg Urea/ha. Sorghum was planted with a row spacing of 80x20 cm. Fertilizers used were urea, SP-36, KCl, and cattle manure. The fertilizers were applied on first-planted sorghum plants, so the ratoon-1 of sorghum plants was not fertilized. The result of the experiment indicated that sorghum genotypes responded differently to N fertilization. The highest grain yield was found at Talaga Bodas (32.75 g/plant), while the lowest grain yield was 23,96 g/panicle, found at the GH-6 genotype. The difference in sorghum grain yield was most likely due to different sizes and numbers of sorghum grains. On the other side, different levels of N fertilization did not show significant differences in sorghum ratoon-1.