4. •Sorghum is a annual or perennial grass, the roots are
adventitious or fibrous.
•The stem is erect and made up of nodes and internodes,
the pith may be juicy, sweet or dry.
•The leaves are 7 and 28 arranged alternating to
opposite side with paralle vination.
•Presence of waxy layer limits the water loss from the
plants.
5.
6. •The panicles varies loose to compact, in some varieties
panicles remain surrounded by sheath and peduncle
recurred giving pendent neck called as goose neck.
•Panicle consists of spikelets in pairs.
•The sessile is hermaphrodite and fertile, while other
pedicillate is sterile.
•The sessile spikelet consist of inner and outer glumes
enclosing two flowers,upper one is perfect and lower one
is reduced.
7.
8. •The perfect flower has thin narrow hairy lemma and small
palea enclosing three stamens and two lodicules and
bifurcated stigma.
•The pedicillate flower is without lemma and palea.
•The grain is caryopsis, the endosperm starchy and
embryo consist of plumule, coleoptiles, radicle
coleorhizae called as scutellum.
9.
10.
11. FLORAL BIOLOGY AND CROSSING
•The flowering occurs prior to sunrise and extended upto
mid-day, the blooming starts from tip of the panicle in
downward direction.
•The stigma is receptive before flowering and remain
receptive for 6-8 days.
•Pollen are viable for few hours and fertilization
completed within 2 to 4 hoursof pollination.
•Jower is normally a self pollinated crop but stigma
exposed before dehisce leads to 6 to 30% of cross
12. EMASCULATION AND POLLINATION
•Hand emasculation: Only the part of the peduncle is
emasculated. Flower tip and lower branches are
removed by clipping.About 50 florets that would
flower on next day are selected and emasculated and
covered with suitable paper bags.
•Hot water method: in this method The sorghum head
is immersed in Water at 45° to 48°C for 10 min
without any injury to stigma.
13. •Pollination is done on next day morning between 9 to
10 am all flowers come to bloom.
•Inserting and shading the head in the bag collected
with pollens.
•Another technique is clipping the heads early in the
morning And placed in The boxes or flower pots Kept
on protected place.The collected pollens are dusted
over the exposed stigma or brushed over emasculated
Head.
