Abstract

Sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], a specific type of sorghum, has been considered a potentially valuable source for biofuel production because of its high energy convertion efficiency. Many characteristics such as green stalk yield, stalk sugar content, stalk juice extractability and grain yield have been proved as major contributors to its economic superiority. Although heterosis is well established in grain and forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], reports of heterosis in sweet sorghum are limited to results from grain sorghum × sweet sorghum hybrids. Thirty hybrids, derived from a line × tester trial, were evaluated in kharif season during 2010 along with their parents and the checks. Heterosis over mid parent, better parent and standard checks viz., CSH 22SS, PAC 52093 and NSSV 13 was studied for bioethanol yield and its component characters. Based on standard heterosis the hybrids viz., NSS 1007A × CSV 19SS and RS 1220A × SSV 74 are found highly suitable for heterosis breeding as they exhibited significant positive standard heterosis for ethanol yield and its contributing traits.

Keywords: Ethanol yield, heterosis, total soluble solids, total biomass and juice yield