Agronomic and Technological Characteristics of Genotypes of Sorghum Inoculated With Azospirillum Brasilense.

The sorghum has been evaluated as a feedstock option for ethanol production. Bacteria of the genus Azospirillum are free-living microorganisms, have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen and when associated with the roots of grasses such as corn, wheat, rice, sorghum and sugar cane can provide this nitrogen in the ammonium form, can replace part of nitrogenous fertilizers. The present work was to evaluate the agronomic and technological characteristics of sorghum genotypes when inoculated with Azospirillum brasilense. The experiment was conducted in Selvíria, MS, Brazil (20º22'S, 51°22'W and 335 m of altitude), from January to April 2012. The experimental design was a randomized block with four replications. The treatments consisted of the combination of four sorghum genotypes (Sugar Graze, BMR 23402, 98456 and V05202), with or without inoculation with Azospirillum brasiliense by seed. The spacing was 0.70 m and population of 130,000 plants/ha. The sowing fertilization was performed with 16, 56 and 32 kg/ha of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O, respectively. Sidedressing 21 days after the emergency was performed with 50 kg/ha N, using as source Ammonium Sulfate. The inoculation Azospirillum brasilense only influenced the plant height in one of the genotypes; among genotypes, Sugar Graze and 98456 provided the best results in terms of Brix (° Brix), Sucrose apparent in juice (%), fresh and dry mass (t/ha) (mean 16.73; 12.94; 99,886 and 31,824, respectively).