Yield and Plant Population of Whole Sweet Sorghum In Eastern Kentucky.

Sweet sorghum is a drought-tolerant, C4 grass with a demonstrated high yield potential in Eastern KY. A study was conducted in 2010 to determine whole plant yield, stalks per acre, and percent dry matter for whole and squeezed stalks of nine commercial sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) varieties. The varieties included Dale, Della, SugarDrip, Theis, M81-E, Keller, Top 76-6, Umbrella, and Simon. Whole plant yield (wet weight) ranged from 8.73 to 38.33 tons/acre for Umbrella and Keller, respectively. The number of stalks per acre ranged from 23,958 to 121,097 stalks/acre for Umbrella and Keller, respectively. There is a 0.73 correlation value between the whole plant production and the number of stalks per acre. These data suggest that Keller and M81-E varieties are consistently high producing varieties. Plant population data suggests that some varieties were much higher in population than others due to higher seeding rates variation in seed size. Plant maturity was verified from half bloom to physiological mature.