[01] Ali H. Bahar, University of Zalingei, Faculty of Agriculture, Zalingei, Sudan. [02] Kamal I. Adam, University of Zalingei, Faculty of Agriculture, Zalingei, Sudan. [03] Siddig A. Mohammed Ali, University of Zalingei, Faculty of Agriculture, Zalingei, Sudan.

A field experiment was conducted at the University of Zalingei demonstration farm. (Zalingei, Central Darfur State, Sudan), during 2013/ 2014 rainy season, to investigate the effect of sowing date and variety each separately and in interaction on growth and yield of sorghum (Sorghum bicolour L. Moench) cultivars under rain fed condition .Treatments were consisted of three sowing dates (7thof July, 10thof July and 15thof July), four sorghum varieties and genotypes (Tabat, Wad-Ahmed, Abu-ragaba and Abu-Kunjara). Treatments were arranged in split plot design replicated four times with sowing dates in the main plots and varieties in the subplots. The size of the main plots and subplots were 12 ×3 and 3×3 m respectively. Numbers of germinated seeds and plant heights (cm) were read three times. At harvest number of thousand grain weights (g) and yield (kg/feddan) were determined. All collected data were statistically analyzed. Analysis of variance and test of significance were done according to standard procedure of split plot design (Gomez and Gomez 1984) using MSTAT-C program. Results of germinated seeds counts showed significant differences (p≤ 0.05) for the both three counts. Locally well known sorghum variety Wad-Ahmed and the genotype Abu-Ragaba showed the highest counts of germinated seeds (372.1, 368.3), whereas Tabat and Aba-Kunjara showed the lowest counts of germinated seeds (323.3; 321.3).Results showed no significant differences for both three readings of plant heights in different varieties. The results of the three counts of number of germinated seeds under different sowing dates revealed no significant differences between sowing dates both in first and third counts of number of germinated seeds (NGS), whereas significant differences (p≤ 0.05) were found in second count of NGS (360.0 was the highest NGS in first sowing date, followed by 351.6 NGS for the second sowing date, then 338.3 NGS for the third sowing date the lowest. Results also showed no significant differences between sowing dates both in three readings of plant heights. The effect of interaction of sowing dates and variety on growth performance and yield components of sorghum showed significant differences (p≤ 0.05). For yield results revealed that no significant differences were found through all interactions. Yield for all interactions varied from 667.1 kg/feddanto 362.5 kg/feddan.

Sorghum, Sowing Dates, Varieties, Growth, Yield, Rain-Fed

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