Abstract

The importance of sorghum as a major food and fodder crop of India demands it efficient management. In this crop, as in many other cereals the date of flowering is much more definite than ripening. It is desirable to know when exactly the crop becomes fit for harvest, steering clear of immature grains and poor germination on the one hand and loss of grain by leaving the crop too long in the field, on the other. If the date of maturity could be fixed definitely as so many days after flowering the crop could be harvested earlier and the straw would also be secured in a greener and more palatable state. Being an exposed grain, sorghum gets discoloured if any rain is received after the dough stage. This reduces its market value: Moreover, if heavy rains are received at the time the grains are in the 'wax' stage, they are liable to germinate in situ, which means a loss in the yield also. Thus a knowledge of the exact date of maturity would help to prevent an unnecesrary delay in harvest. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study on the ripening of sorghum grain.

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