Sudan grass
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Sudan grass ( Sorghum × drummondii ) |
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| Sorghum × drummondii | ||||||||||||
| ( Steud. ) Millsp. & Chase |
The Sudan grass ( Sorghum × drummondii , often under the synonym sorghum sudanense ) is a plant from the family of the sweet grasses (Poaceae).
description
The Sudan grass is an annual plant , its stalks are between 1 and 2.5 meters tall and have a diameter of 3 to 6 millimeters. The leaf sheath is glabrous or partly hairy, including at the base. The bald leaf blade is linear or linear-lanceolate , 15 to 30 centimeters long and 1 to 3 centimeters wide, the ligula is brown.
The inflorescence is a loose, slender branched panicle that is 15 to 30 centimeters long and 6 to 12 centimeters wide and is composed of two to five pairs of spikelets . Sessile spikelets are elliptical and 6 to 7.5 millimeters long, their callus is hairy, the lower glume is leathery, tapers upwards, is finely covered with slender, stiff bristles and clearly nerved with eleven to thirteen side ribs. The upper lemma is ovate or ovate-elliptical, bilobed at the tip, the awn is 10 to 16 millimeters long.
Stalked spikelets are male or sterile, linear-lanceolate and durable. The fruit (a caryopsis ) is elliptical to inverted-egg-shaped elliptical, 3.5 to 4.5 millimeters long and surrounded by husks.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 20.
distribution
The species is native from tropical West Africa to Sudan . It is found there along river banks and irrigation channels, it spreads like weeds. Sudan grass is a C 4 plant , loves warmth and is quite tolerant of drought.
Systematics and botanical history
The species is of hybrid origin and arose from a cross between the black millet Sorghum bicolor and Sorghum arundinaceum . The countless forms of this common hybrid have been described as Sorghum × drummondii (Nees ex Steudel) Millspaugh & Chase . Synonyms are: Andropogon × drummondii Nees ex Steud. , Sorghum × sudanense (Piper) Stapf and Sorghum × aterrimum Stapf .
Cultivation
Because of the limited cultivation experience in Central Europe, information on cultivation methods and harvest quantities has so far been largely based on test results.
If the soil requirements are low, Sudan grass loves warmth and is sensitive to frost, but is considerably more drought-tolerant than maize (the arable crop that is dominant in Central Europe for feed and biogas use). Sudan grass can interrupt growth in drought and resume later. Because of their slow youth development, Sudan grass cultures are considered susceptible to weed growth in the establishment phase.
Individual cultivars are available. Sowing takes place in May. Sudan grass is harvested with the forage harvester at the beginning of the plowing in the second half of June and again at the end of October or beginning of November. In cultivation trials between 30 and 44 decitons per hectare (dt / ha) with a low yield and between 67 and 82 dt / ha with a high yield could be harvested in two harvests.
Several years of test series in Germany (since 2005 in parallel in seven federal states) confirm that the plants are in principle suitable for cultivation in Central Europe. There are currently no larger cultivation areas, only a few areas around Würzburg or Worms .
use
Sudan grass is mainly used as a forage crop, the feed value is slightly lower than that of silage maize. Due to its mass growth, the plant is also attracting increasing interest in the biogas industry. With pure fermentation of Sudan grass, biogas yields of 500 to 600 cubic meters per ton of organic dry matter with methane contents of 50 to 55 percent by volume can be achieved.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shou-liang Chen, Sylvia M. Phillips: Sorghum . In: Flora Of China , Vol. 22, p. 601, online
- ↑ a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Sorghum. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Accessed May 31, 2020.
- ↑ JMJ De Wet, JR Harlan, EG Price: Origin of Variability in the Spontanea Complex of Sorghum bicolor . In: American Journal of Botany , 57: 6, 1970, pp. 704-707
- ↑ Anonymous: Plant portrait 2 - Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanense) from the genus Sorghum from the sweet grass family (Poaceae)
- ^ Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft eV: Energy crops - data for planning energy crops. Pp. 141-150, KTBL, 2006. ISBN 3-939371-21-1
- ↑ Katja Gödeke, Arlett Nehring, Armin Vetter: Development and comparison of optimized cultivation systems for the agricultural production of energy crops under the different location conditions in Germany - results as of February 2007. Thuringian State Institute for Agriculture, Jena, Dornburg. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 357 kB)
- ↑ B. Schulze: Cultivation telegram Sudangras , PDF online ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Test results on energy crop cultivation (PDF; 343 kB)
- ↑ (Saxon State Agency for Agriculture: Sudan grass (Sorghum sudanense) cultivation and utilization. March 2007.)
Web links
- energy plants.info:Sudan grass (information on cultivation as an energy plant)