THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN LEVELS AND SOURCES ON YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS AND OTHER AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS OF TWO SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) VARIETIES.

THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN LEVELS AND SOURCES ON YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS AND OTHER AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS OF TWO SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) VARIETIES.

Abstract:

A field experiment was conducted in 1992 wet season, on the farm of Institute for Agricultural Research Samaru(ll° 11′ N 07° 38′ E),to evalute the effect of level and sources of nitrogen on yield, yield components and other agronomic characters of two sorghum varieties. The result of the trial, indicated a significant response to different level of nitrogen but not to the sources of nitrogen applied. Irrespective of the nitrogen source, the rate of 60kg N/ha appeared to be the optimum rate for the two sorghum varieties evaluated. Variety SAMSORG 17 (SK 5912) was found to out-yielded SAMSORG 16 by 14.8%, even though this difference was not significant. There was no significant effect of nitrogen source on either the yield or yield components and other agronomic characters of the two sorghum varieties. A correlation studies showed that leaf area per plant, leaf area index, stem and leaf dry weight, plant height all at 10 WAS panicle weight, stover weight and 1000 grain weight were all possitively correlated with the grain yield of the sorghum varieties. Grain crude protein percentage was however, found to be negatively associated with the grain yield of sorghum. A regression analysis was carried out to see the effect of different levels of nitrogen applied to grain yield of the sorghum varieties. The result of the analysis is fitted to a quadratic response which is represented by an equation y = 298.4 + 9.31x – 0.03 9×2. The curve of the regression analysis indicated a maximum level of nitrogen for highest grain yield to be 119.35 Kg N/ha

THE EFFECT OF NITROGEN LEVELS AND SOURCES ON YIELD, YIELD COMPONENTS AND OTHER AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS OF TWO SORGHUM (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) VARIETIES.