Variability and Correlation Between Some Morphological Characters In Forage Sorghum

Abstract

The study was carried out at the College of Agricultural Studies, Sudan University of Science and Technology at Shambat, during the period from July to October 2009. The main object of this research is to study variability and correlation in eleven genotypes of forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) for some morphological characters. A complete randomized block design with three replications was used. The parameters measured were plant height, leaf area, number of leaves per plant, stem diameter and days to 50% flowering. Phenotypic and genotypic variances, VI phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation and interrelationships among different growth parameters were investigated. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences (p≤ o.o1) among genotypes for most growth parameters. Leaf area showed the highest value of phenotypic variance, while plant height exhibited the highest value for genotypic variance. The highest values for phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation were obtained by plant height that showed positive and non- significant phenotypic and genotypic correlation with all growth characters other than days to 50% flowering. Correlation between days to 50% flowering with each of plant height and number of leaves was significantly positive. Leaf area was significantly negative correlation with plant height. The genotypes panar 888, Ankolib traditional and Ankolib S- 18 scored the highest values of plant height, number of leaves / plant and leaf area, respectively.