No abstract

Sweet sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a sugar‐based biofuel crop that is well‐suited to tropical environments. Most sweet sorghum cultivars are open‐pollinated, but hybrids could offer yield and seed production advantages. Fifteen hybrids were generated among five female and three male parents. The hybrids, parents, and three inbred checks were evaluated for sugar yield and related traits under two environments in Thailand in 2013: Field Crop Research Station at Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, and National Corn and Sorghum Research Center, Nakhon Ratchasima. Theoretical sugar yield was positively correlated with juice dissolved solids (Brix), plant height, stalk diameter, biomass yield, stripped stalk yield, and theoretical juice yield. Grain yield was negatively correlated with juice dissolved solids and theoretical sugar yield. Positive heterosis for juice dissolved solids was not observed, though five hybrids had negative mid‐parent heterosis for this trait. Positive heterosis for biomass yield, theoretical juice yield, and grain yield was observed in some hybrids. General combining ability was observed for most traits, but specific combining ability (SCA) effects were of greater importance. Overall, the hybrids KKA‐11 × BJ248, KKA‐11 × KKU40, KKA‐139 × BJ248, KKA‐14 × KKU40, and KKA‐53 × Theis had the greatest SCA for theoretical sugar yield. In producing ethanol from both sugar and grain fractions, two of the hybrids in this study (KKA‐11 × BJ248 and KKA‐139 × BJ248) could produce approximately 4600 L ha−1 ethanol in Thailand.

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) is one of the most important root crops in the world. It is primarily grown as a second crop during the dry season in Thailand. Several cultivars are produced with some being imported from Japan, especially cv. Japanese Orange, Yellow and Purple which are popular because they have high value and are rich in phytochemicals. Thai farmers use only one planting pattern for production although there are five recommended patterns available. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of different planting patterns on yield, agronomic traits, and determine associations among agronomic traits of sweet potato cv. Japanese Orange. The experiments were conducted during the rainy and dry seasons of 2017. An RCBD with 5 planting patterns and 3 replications were used. Tuber yield, no. of tuber/plant, no. of tuber/ha, no. branch/plant, tuber diameter and tuber fresh weight were measured. The results revealed that during the rainy season, pattern 5 (three vines per hole) had highest tuber yield (11.2 ton/ha), no. of tubers/plant (7.7) and number of tubers/ha (408.9×103) whereas pattern 3 (one vine) had highest no of branches/plant (4.7) and tuber diameter (36.9 mm). In the dry season, patterns 1, 5 and 3 had the highest yields (7.13, 6.71 and 6.48 ton/ha, respectively) pattern 1 had significantly higher tuber fresh weight (84.17 g) than the other four patterns. Pattern 5 had the highest number of tubers/plant and number of tubers/ha during the dry season. We found positive correlations between tuber yield and number of tuber per plant, number of tuber per ha, vine length, vine girth, number of nodes per plant at 60 and 75 DAP.

The objectives of this research were to evaluate grain yield, related traits and some agronomic performances of 15 sesame cultivars under rain-fed conditions on marginal land of Northeast in Thailand. The experiments were conducted at two locations; Maha Sarakham and Buriram provinces in Northeast Thailand during the summer of 2018. The fields were arranged in a RCBD with 4 replications and 15 sesame cultivars. Significant differences were observed for all traits at both locations except SPAD chlorophyll meter reading (SCMR) at 90 DAP in Maha Sarakham. Significant differences were found between locations for yield and some of the yield components. It appeared that pod/plant, plant height, number of branches, and plant biomass were the most important components attributing to yield. Harvest index was negatively correlated with yield. Heritability estimates were the highest for plant height (0.88), branches per plant (0.92), pod width (0.95), and pod length (0.89). At Maha Sarakahm, cv. UB3 had the greatest grain yield (1058.03 kg ha-1), and was among the highest for number of branches/plant, plant height, and number of pods/plant, whereas KKU1 had the highest harvest index (43.62%). Mahasarakham60 had the highest SCMR value at 60 and 75 DAP and also total chlorophyll content at 60, 75 and 90 DAP. At Buriram cv. Buriram had the highest number of branches/plant, plant height, SCMR, total chlorophyll content, and number of capsules/plant, but did not have a high grain yield (334.44 kg ha-1). UB1 had the highest grain yield (545.63 kg ha-1) at Buriram. Environmental factors affected agronomic performances and grain yield in sesame grown under the rain-fed condition and marginal land in Thailand. If breeding under various environmental conditions, traits such as plant height and number of branches per plant would achieve the highest gains.

-The objectives of this study were to verify the use of LW7 marker in identifying maintainer lines (B-lines) and restorer lines (R-lines)

No abstract

The world demand for clean renewable energy has seen a rise in use of sugarcane in production of bioenergy products like bio-ethanol which is produced from molasses and extracted juice of stalk. This then brings a competition between production for food and for bioenergy in the sugarcane industry. Therefore, this calls for breeders and producers to develop and produce high yielding sugarcane varieties to meet the demand. We undertook a study with the aim to screen the recently released elite lines for the ethanol yield and related traits. The study was conducted in two locations under rainfed conditions in Maha Sarakham, Thailand. The results showed that all the locations had no effect on the studied genotypes thus suggesting that they are stable over different locations. The mean values show that SG. KK07-478 and RT2004-085 showed better performance recording higher juice yield, juice weight, TSS, percent of ethanol and estimated ethanol yield in both locations. We found interaction between location and variety except in TSS and percent of ethanol, RT2004-085 showed the highest TSS, juice weight, SG, PE and EEY in combine both locations. A high correlation of EEY to juice yield (0.967***) and juice weight (0.978***) also percent ethanol was highly correlated with TSS (0.953**) this then suggest that to improve ethanol yield breeders should focus on improved the performance of juice yield, juice weight and the TSS. Because of the higher performance, KK07-478 and RT2004-085 should further be evaluated in several other locations before they are adopted by farmers

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of sulphur (S) on growth, agricultural traits, seed yield and oil content in white, brown and black seed color of sesame grown under infertile soil. The experiment was conducted in RCBD arranged in factorial 3 × 4 with 3 reps under pot condition both dry and wet season; factor A was 3 cultivars of sesame and factor B was 4 levels of sulfur (S). The results showed that various cultivars of sesame responded differently to S levels. Some agronomic traits were not affected by S levels i.e. plant height, SCMR and 1000 seeds weight especially in wet season but these traits differed in various cultivars of sesame. Combined analysis of the two seasons was also done and the results showed that S levels did not affect to most traits except number of capsules, whereas interaction between cultivar and S level were found on number of branches, total dry weight and oil content, cv. KKU2 and KKU3 (black and brown seed). cv. KKU3 with application of S at 20 kg ha-1 showed highest total dry weight, whereas cv. KKU3 with application rate of S at 0 kg ha-1 showed highest oil content followed by cv. MK60 with 80 kg ha-1. Interestingly the black and brown seeded cultivars had a positive response to S levels as compared to the white seeded cultivar. From the result, we can conclude that the dry season is the optimal season for sesame production in low fertile soils and that black and brown seed color responds positive to S level than white. However, we strongly suggest that field study should be undertaken to correlate our results in natural growing conditions