Nitrogen Nutrition in sorghum

As with other crop plants, nitrogen plays an important role for good growth and development of sorghum.

Nitrogen is to a plant what petrol is to a car.

         Sorghum well supplied with Nitrogen

Nitrogen drives plant growth which stops when plants run out of nitrogen.
Nitrogen to some extent controls the efficient utilization of phosphorus and potassium.

Nitrogen availability to plants is reflected in dark green color of stems and leaves, and vigorous growth.
Sorghum uptakes maximum nitrogen during the 5- leaf stage until flowering.

This is the stage is when plants turn from vegetative growth to early reproductive stage and plants
initiate heads and determine the number of potential seeds.Yield potential is established at this time. Deficiency of nutrients and/or moisture will reduce yields drastically.Applying nitrogen is essential for acceptable yields.In light soils (sandy loams) the applied nitrogen may be lost due to leaching with heavy rains.

 

 

 

So, only about half of the recommended nitrogen dose should be applied at seedbed preparation. The remaining half of nitrogen dose is side dressed when the crop is 25 to 30 days old.On soils which do not leach easily like black soils, all of the nitrogen may be applied during seedbed preparation.