Effect of Mixed Red Sea and Well Waters on the Growth and Dry Matter Yield of Three Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Monech) Varieties at Arim, Red Sea State, Sudan*

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in the Ministry of
Agriculture and Animal Resources Farm in the Red Sea coast at Arim, for
two seasons (2011/2012 and 2013/2014) to investigate the effect of
diluted Red Sea waters on the growth and productivity of sorghum
(Sorghum bicolor) in a Typic Torrifluvent soil. The treatments consisted
of three varieties: forage sorghum (Abusabien), Aklomoy and White milo,
three dilutions of Red Sea water with three electrical conductivities
(ECiw): 0.48, 5.4, and 9.4 dS/m, and three replicates. The treatments were
arranged in a split-plot design, where ECiw treatments designated the
main plots and sorghum varieties the subplots. Soil samples were
collected before planting and at harvest by an auger from the following
five successive depths: 0-10, 10-20, 20-40, 40-60, and 60-100 cm. In both
seasons, the overall mean height (H) for the three varieties showed
significant (P < 0.05) linear decrease with increase of ECiw. At harvest,
Abusabien gave highly significant (P < 0.01) tallest plants while white
milo gave the shortest plants. The mean plant heights of Abusabien,
Aklamoy and White milo in the first season were 156, 121 and 116 cm,
respectively. In the second season the mean heights for the same varieties
in sequence were 173, 147 and 125 cm. The main effects of ECiw, variety
and their interaction on leaf area index (LAI) were not significant in the
first season and the overall mean LAI was 3.8. In the second season, the