Effect of inter row spacing and fertilizer levels on crop growth, seed yield and seed quality of perennial fodder sorghum cv. CoFS-29

A field experiment was conducted at main Agricultural Research Station, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during kharif 2013 and 2014 to investigate the effect of inter row spacing and fertilizer levels on growth, seed yield and seed quality of perennial fodder sorghum (cv. CoFS-29). This experiment was comprised of three inter row spacing viz., 30, 45 and 60 cm and four fertilizer levels viz. 100: 40: 40, 100: 60: 40, 150: 40: 40 and 150: 60: 40 kg NPK/ha in split plot design with three replications. The pooled results showed that wider spacing row of 60 cm produced significantly more number of tillers/plant (11.29) and leaves/plant (72.54) at harvest, higher leaf area/plant (15862 cm²) and leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD value, 39.03) at 90 DAS and maximum panicle length (51.62 cm), number of panicles/plant (12.02), higher seed yield/plant (15.29 g), 1000 seed weight (6.57 g), seed germination (40.83%) and seedling vigour index (1120). Whereas, plant height (200.0 cm), seed yield/ha (657.6 kg) and dry fodder yield/ha (126.7q) was higher in narrow spacing of 30 cm. Further seed yield and its attributes like plant height (202.5 cm), number of tillers/plant (11.52), leaves/plant (73.72), leaf area/plant (16244 cm²), leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD value, 39.61), panicle length (52.64 cm), panicles/plant (11.44), seed yield/plant (14.21 g), seed yield/ha (641.6 kg) and dry fodder yield/ha (125.6 q) were observed significantly higher in plots fertilized with 150: 60: 40 kg NPK/ha as compared to other fertilizer levels. In general, seed quality improved significantly with increased row spacing, but fertilizer level had little effect on seed quality. However, the interaction of 30 cm row spacing and 150: 60: 40 kg NPK/ha shown higher seed yield/ha (671.0 kg) as compared to other interactions.