Morphological characteristics of BRS 501 sweet sorghum under water stress

• Published in: Vértices (Campos dos Goitacazes) Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 135 - 145
• Main Authors: Luciano Rezende Moreira, Jardélcio Damião Carvalho Ervilha, Juliana Gonçalves Vidigal, Glauco Vieira Miranda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Essentia Editora IFFluminense 01-12-2016
• Subjects: Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Deficit hídrico. Raiz. WinRhizo
• ISSN: 1415-2843; 1809-2667
• DOI: 10.19180/1809-2667.v18n32016p135-145

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] crop is distinguished from other crops for its tolerance to both water deficit and excess soil moisture, under very dry and/or very hot environmental situations in which the productivity of other cereals becomes uneconomical. This work was conducted to evaluate the effects of irrigation on root conformation at the initial development phase of sweet sorghum. So, BRS 501 cv. was subjected to four irrigation levels based on 80%, 60%, 40% and 20% of the field capacity (CC). The decreased availability of water in the soil negatively affected the majority of the characteristics under evaluation except for the relationship between the root system and the aerial part (SR/PA), average root diameter (DMR) and specific root area (ARE). We concluded that the growth of sweet sorghum plants under evaluation is sensible to the decrease of water in the soil, as it is affected by low water availability. This methodology, common to other crops, can be used for saccharine sorghum in order to establish hydric availabilities in new experiments to discriminate the drought-tolerant cultivars.