Adaptability trial of super sweet sorghum

The study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the super sorghum hybrids coded as B6, EN 12-12, each having distinct characteristics under the humid tropical conditions of the Philippines. It was tested against the commercial local variety from India, SPV 422. Three trials were established t assess the (1)performance evaluation of test cultivars; (2)response of plant to the effect of different planting distances; and (3)effect of increasing fertilizer rates on the agronomic and yield performance of sweet sorghum. Agronomic and yield data were gathered at milking stage at at crop's grain maturity. In terms of agronomic performance, , V1 (B6) performed best in term of stalk weight, stem diameter, and grain weight particularly during June planting and V3 (EN 12-12) for October and July planting. V2 (EN 12-11) produced the tallest but lightest stalks while V4 (SPV 422) competes for V1 (B6) and V3 (EN 12-12) in terms of biomass, grain, juice, and cane yield of the test cultivars but it was found out that using 68 x 10 cm planting distance produced tall plants or broad leaves due to the activation of phytochrome-mediated responses while a 75 x 15 cm planting distance generated thick stalks with high juice content and that wide space planting like 90 x 20 cm can be used to generate long leaves and internode. For the effect of fertilizer, using 116-84-84 kg/ha of NPK enables the plants to attain high cane and juice yield were observed whwn planting was done on June while a lower yield was measured when planting was conducted on July and October. Photoperiod in sweet sorghum causes poor agronomic performance and yield reduction due to early flowering. A lower yield has also resulted when plants were ratooned on December. Grain production, on the other hand, is susceptible to bird infestation. For ethanol production, V4 (SPV 422) is recommended due to its high juice volume and sugar content. V3 (EN-12-12), on the other hand, was also observed to contain high sugar concentration which can be utilized for ethanol production. Due to senescence, performance of crop during grain maturity was relatively lower than at milking stage.