Effects of Sowing Time on the Growth, Development and Productivity of Sweet Sorghum

Hoang Thi Bich Thao¹, Tran Van Dien¹, Tran Dang Xuan²

¹Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam.
²Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/jsbs.2015.54012                

Abstract

The experiments were conducted to determine suitable sowing time in order to achieve high plant biomass and sugar content of sweet sorghum for bioethanol manufacture. The results showed that germination rate reached > 80% in all trial times (p > 0.05). The growth and development speed of sweet sorghum reduced when seeds were sowed in August and was significantly different from other sowing times (p < 0.05). Sowing from March to June obtained the highest plant height during all growth and development stages. Lodging and diseases observed in all periods of sowing, and planting began in July and August had lower percentage. In contrast, the productivity of fresh weight (1310.4 g/whole plant), sugar content (14.9% Brix), biomass yield (122.4 tons/ha) and theoretical converted ethanol yield (5 tons/ha) were the highest when sweet sorghum planted from March to June. It was observed that sowing sweet sorghum in four periods of month from March to June had the desirable biomass for bioethanol production.

Keywords

Bioethanol, Biomass, Sowing, Sugar Content, Sweet Sorghum

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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