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Effect of Soil Moisture Regime and Row Spacing on Grain Sorghum Production 1
Author(s) -
Plaut Z.,
Blum A.,
Ar I.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1969.00021962006100030002x
Subject(s) - evapotranspiration , sorghum , stover , agronomy , irrigation , water use efficiency , yield (engineering) , water content , mathematics , environmental science , crop , biology , geotechnical engineering , ecology , materials science , metallurgy , engineering
Effect of soil moisture regime and row spacing on grain yield of RS‐610 sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor L. Moench.) was investigated under semi‐arid conditions in 1964 and 1965. Most grain resulted with three irrigations or with two irrigations when the second was applied between heading and milk stage. The latter gave highest water use efficiency. One irrigation, applied at heading, was better than a single application made earlier or later. Main yield component affected by irrigation was the 1,000‐grain weight. One year this was significantly correlated with leaf area duration (LAD). Total evapotranspiration increased from 270 mm without irrigation to as much as 530 mm with three irrigations. There was a sigmoid relationship between yield and total evapotranspiration. Total stover production per unit area increased linearly as evapotranspiration increased. Decreasing the number of irrigations increased water depletion by causing greater depth of root development. Decreasing row spacing from 70 to 45 cm had hardly any positive effect on yield.