Effect of harvesting stages on juice quality and ethanol yield in sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) cultivars during rabi Ramesha Y.M.1,*, Associate Professor, Sharanappa1, Professor University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560 065 1Agronomy, College of Agriculture *Corresponding author Email: rameshyam@gmail.com
Online published on 25 September, 2013. Abstract A field experiment was conducted during rabi 2008 and 2009 in red sandy clay loam soil at Agriculture Research Station, Kathalagere, Karnataka to study the effect of harvesting stages on juice quality and ethanol yield in sweet sorghum {Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench} cultivars. There were four cultivars (‘NSSH 1’, ‘RSSV 9’, ‘SSV 84’ and ‘SSV 74’) and three harvesting stages (50% flowering, milky stage and maturity). The cultivar ‘NSSH 1’ recorded significantly higher brix (14.5), pol (8.4), available sugar (4.4%), calculated sugar yield (132.7 kg/ha), millable stalk (29.5 t/ha), green biomass (32.9 t/ha), juice (10,914 l/ha) and ethanol yield (538.4 l/ha) as compared to ‘RSSV 9’, ‘SSV 84’ and ‘SSV 74’. The crop harvested at maturity recorded significantly higher brix (14.8), pol (8.7), available sugar (4.7%), calculated sugar yield (136.6 kg/ha), millable stalk (29.1 t/ha) and green biomass yield (31.7 t/ha) compared to crop harvested at 50% flowering stage and milky stage. But, juice (9,777 l/ha) and ethanol yield (474.5 l/ha) were significantly higher when the crop harvested at milky stage. The ‘NSSH 1’ harvested at milky stage recorded significantly higher juice (11,415 l/ha) and ethanol yield (591.0 l/ha). Top Keywords Brix, Ethanol, Harvesting stages, Juice, Pol, Sweet sorghum. Top |