Yield and morpho-agronomical evaluation of food-grade white sorghum hybrids grown in Southern Italy

Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a gluten-free grain that is gaining attention as a food crop that can be used in the management of celiac disease. At present, sorghum is widely grown in many semiarid regions of the world. New food-grade sorghum cultivars are of particular interest in Mediterranean countries due to improved quality characteristics and gluten-free status of the grains. Until now very few studies have examined the grain yield (GYLD) and agronomic performance characteristics of food-grade sorghum hybrids in Italy. A 2 year study was conducted to evaluate the agronomic performance of eight food-grade sorghum hybrids representing different maturity classes in trials conducted in Southern Italy. The results showed wide variation in adaptation of these hybrids as measured by differences in GYLD (2.35-8.50 t ha(-1)) and other phenomorphological characteristics. Of particular interest was the fact that many of the early-flowering hybrids (e. g. SP-X303) performed better than the later-flowering hybrids (e. g. ArchX-02). These results demonstrated that flowering time of hybrid and crop cycle length are important factors to consider in selecting cultivars for production in the Mediterranean region.