Background : Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a perennial plant of the Gramineae, followed by rice, wheat, corn and barley, the fifth major food crop in the world. Sorghum is mostly used in Korea for cereals using seeds or for making food directly. However, sorghum is not directly used for food in foreign countries, but plays an important role in the development of cosmetic and pharmaceutical materials and as a bio-energy crop. Most of the sorghum cultivated in Korea does not use the remainder after harvesting seeds, so research on other uses is needed. Therefore, we carried out this experiment in order to identify the characteristics of domestic genetic resources and to select the genetic resources with excellent growth.
Methods and Results : Samples were tested for their growth characteristics by the Agricultural Genetic Resources of National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Growth characteristics of heading, total length, stem length, stem width, leaf length, leaf width, length of ears and width of ears were investigated. After 10 weeks of sowing, 45% of the outbreaks occurred and showed a quick heading. The total length of the sorghum ranged from 65.7 ㎝ to 341.0 ㎝, and the stem width ranged from 0.2 ㎝ to 2.6 ㎝. Leaf length ranged from 33.3 ㎝ to 92.4 ㎝ and leaf width ranged from 3.8 ㎝ to 12.2 ㎝. The length of the ears was in the range of 8.0 ㎝ - 52.7 ㎝, and the width of the ears was in the range of 5.2 ㎝ - 27.0 ㎝. K131301, K178840, K258654 and K255198, which are expected to bear a large number of seeds with high biomass content and large size of leaves and plants, were selected.
Conclusion : Through this study, we can understand the growth characteristics of the sorghum in Korea and select excellent genetic resources.