Seasonal variation in sowing and its effect on ethanol and biomass yield of sweet sorghum

This paper compares and assesses various sweet sorghum genotypes in terms of their biological yield, juice yield and computed ethanol at four different sowing dates. Twenty-three genotypes and one hybrid were examined and the study reveals that RSSH-50 recorded higher values for plant height, stem girth, photosynthetically active radiation, juice yield, computed ethanol yield, fresh biomass yield and harvest index during the rainy season. In contrast, CSV-19SS showed significantly higher green cane yield and computed ethanol yield followed by RSSV-454, RSSV-446 and RSSV-545 during the summer. The variations in different seasons were due to the distinct weather and climatic conditions. Thus, crops that are sown in late rainy, timely summer and late summer take longer to attain physiological maturity and have reduced biological yield than crop sown in the timely rainy season. Among all genotypes, RSSV-260, SPV-2057, RSSV-540, CSV-19SS and hybrid RSSH-50 during the rainy season and CSV-19SS, RSSV-453 and RSSV-545 during the summer showed balanced performances in terms of ethanol and biomass yield.