YIELDING CAPACITY OF MILLET VARIETIES, SWEET AND GRAIN SORGHUM AS DEPENDENT ON SEEDING RATES ON SOUTH CHERNOZEM SOILS OF ORENBURG PREDURALYE
The results of studies devoted to different agro-technical techniques of such grit crops growing as millet and sorghum are submitted in the article. The study was aimed to select the most productive crop varieties with different seeding rates suitable to soil and climatic conditions of the arid-steppe zone of Orenburg Preduralye. The experimental part of the research work was carried out on the trial fields of the Orenburg State Agrarian University in 2012. The weather conditions during the period of studies were droughty. The millet varieties included in the experiment were Orenburgsky -20 and Saratovsky-12 (factor A) with the seeding rates of 2.5; 3.0; 3.5; 4.0 million viable seeds per hectare (factor B); sorghum was presented by sweet sorghum – the Kinelsky-4 variety and grit sorghum – Premyera variety with the seeding rates of 150, 180, 210 and 240 thousand seeds per one hectare. Generally accepted methods of field trials and laboratory analyses were used in the course of studies. The results of studies indicate that seeding rates influence significantly the germination density and plants viability. The highest yields of both millet varieties were obtained with the seeding rate of 3.5 million viable seeds per one hectare, as to sweet sorghum Kinelsky-4 the highest yielding was with the seeding rate of 210 thousand seeds per one hectare and 240 thousand seeds per one hectare for the grit sorghum variety Premyera.