Title: Effect of Planting Dates on the Growth, Yield and Quality of Three Cultivars of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)
Abstract: Abstract A field study was carried out during the spring season of 2017 in the fields of a farmer in the district of Habbaniyah, which is 70 km west of Baghdad, to study the effect of three planting dates (15 March, 1 April and 15 April) on the growth, yield and quality of three cultivars of sorghum (Babel, Warka and Rabeh). The implementation of the experiment was according to a randomized complete block design (R.C.B.D) with split-plot arrangement with three replications. The results of the experiment indicated that the cultivar Rabeh was superior in most of the studied traits such as leaf area (3968 cm 2 ), number of grains per head (2659.00 grains head -1 ), weight of grains per head (63.41 g) and grain yield (7.44 ton ha -1 ), while the Babel variety was superior in the percentage of protein (12.21%). As for planting dates, the date of April 1 was superior in most of the studied traits, such as leaf area (3635.33 cm 2 ), number of grains per head (2670.33 grains head -1 ), weight of grains per head (62.12 g), grain yield (7.55 ton ha -1 ) and the percentage of protein (11.49%).