GROWTH AND YIELD OF SORGHUM AS INFLUENCED BY GREEN MANURE AND SOIL ORGANIC MATTER CONTENT

Abstract

Green manure increased the organic matter content of the soil. Soybeans, as green manure, provided the highest organic matter content (3.796%), followed by mungbean (3.268%) and bushbean (2.836%). The plot without green manure had the lowest organic matter content of 1.740%. The nutrients from the organic matter of the soil significantly increased plant height in the treated plots more than those in plots without green manure. This practice was not effective in increasing the panicle length, panicle weight, and the 100-grain weight of sorghum. Using mungbean as green manure significantly decreased the grain yield of sorghum although there was a significant increase in plant height. Highly significant differences were observed on the effects of the inorganic fertilizer treatments. Application of 30-30-30 kg/ha of N, P2O5, and K2O markedly increased plant height, leaf area index, panicle length, panicle weight, and grain yield (2.24 t/ha). Plots where no fertilizer was applied yielded 1.12 t/ha of grain.