Sorghum is the fifth most popular grain in the world, with over 40 million hectares, according to 2017 FAO data. The amount of sorghum sown area in Hungary has been extremely fluctuating in the last decades. In 2018, this figure was close to 26,000 hectares. More than half of the sorghum crop in the world is present in the human diet, and therefore their importance is far from negligible. Sorghum is considered to be a drought-tolerant fodder plant and is therefore well suited for use in dry or seasonally drought-prone areas and in areas with poorer characteristics, even as an alternative to maize. In our research, we investigated the nutrient response of white grain sorghum at four nutrient supply levels in a small-plot randomized experiment in Szarvas, Hungary, at the Galambos experimental area of the Szent István University, Faculty of Agriculture and Economics. In our research, we explore the plant physiological, plant physiological and technological relationships that can serve as the basis for modern nutrient management and provide the scientific basis for the efficient development of sorghum production. The soil of the experiment is deep carbonated Chernozem meadow soil, its physical nature: clayey loam, with acidic and slightly acidic pH, its water management is characterized by poor conductivity and high water retention. The experiment investigates the effects of the 4 nutrient combinations. There were four nutrient treatments, four nitrogen levels (0 t/ha, 0,080 t/ha, 0,0120 t/ha, 0,0160 t/ha), four phosphorus (0 t/ha, 0,060 t/ha, 0,090 t/ha, 0,0120 t/ha) and four potassium levels (0 t/ha, 0,060 t/ha, 0,0120 t/ha, 0,0180 t/ha) was set. In addition to the yield results, we also measured the relative chlorophyll content several times during the growing season. For this purpose, a portable Minolta SPAD chlorophyll content meter was used to measure the chlorophyll content of the leaf, and the results were expressed as SPAD, a dimensionless number that can provide unambiguous data on the chlorophyll content of the leaf. In our experiment we investigated the nutrient response of sorghum in terms of changes in chlorophyll content and yield average. Among the nutrient combinations, the most significant positive effect was measured in the case of the 3rd treatment, while the effects of the highest nutrient levels were smaller. In the experiment yields varied between 4.9 t ha-1 and 7.11 t ha-1.

sorghum, nutrient supply relative chlorophyll content, yields

field crops and pastures

Presentation: poster