Investigation of forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor l.) genotypes for yield and yield components

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variability of forage sorghum genotypes and to estimate genotypic, phenotypic, and environmental correlations with path and stability analysis. The experiments were conducted in Antalya and Konya locations of Turkey during 2014-2015 years by using 48 selected forage sorghum lines and 4 sorghum varieties. Experimental design was the randomized complete block, with three replications. Significant variations were recorded for all the characters among the genotypes. The highest plant height has been optained from 355.2 cm and 300.1 cm in Antalya and Konya location respectively. Days to 50% flowering ranged from 64.8-101.3 days in Antalya and 69.0-111.2 days in Konya. The highest forage yield was observed in Line-22 with 99.1 tha-1 in Antalya and in Line-41 with 75.5 tha-1 in Konya. Forage yield was significantly and highly positively correlated with hay yield (r = 0.9851**), plant leaf ratio (r=0.3478*) and stalk yield (r=0.9901**). Path analysis revealed the plant stalk ratio direct positive effect on forage yield. On the other hand, plant stalk yield had negative direct effect through forage yield. According to results of the stability analysis, Line-1, 3, 5, 13, 21, 40, 42 and 44 were the most stable varieties. © 2021, Crea Journals. All rights reserved.