Heads Up! -Sorghum Panicle Bagging

All is well in the land of sorghum. Temperatures have increased along with the workload, but I’m still happy to go to work every morning! College Station has gotten a small bit of rain lately, but if we don’t get some showers soon, we may be looking at irrigating in the future. In the field, most of the sorghum has finished up its vegetative growth and is now focusing on reproduction.



Sorghum panicle

The heads (called the panicles) have emerged on most of the plots and are beginning to flower. It’s at this point that we treat the sorghum differently depending on the test being conducted. In general, we put pollinating bags on the panicles so that the maturing head will be fertilized only by what we want. This is important for sorghum because it is wind pollinated and in a strong wind, pollen can be carried up to a fourth of a mile. The pollination bags that we use are brown paper with a variety of different colored stripes and are designed to withstand the elements.

Up till now, bagging has been split into selfing and female bagging. For selfing plots, we bag panicles as they emerge from the boot but before they reach the flowering stage. Depending on the test, we bag anywhere from four to twenty-five heads per plot and any color bag is acceptable. With selfing blocks, after they’ve been bagged, that’s that.



Female bag for June 12th

Female rows are handled a bit differently. I should point out too, that in some areas of the field, the rows alternate between male and female (the reasoning for this will become clearer once I explain crossing in the next post). In these female rows, we bag panicles that have reached tip flowering, meaning only the very end has fully matured. The tip is removed and a plain brown bag with the date written on it is placed over the head and stapled with a single fold. These bags remain on the panicles until it’s time to cross.

You may be thinking “Is this really important enough to devote a whole post to?” And the answer is without a doubt, yes! Although this is a simple task, it is vital and consumes most of our time. In a single morning, we can go through several thousand bags. Every 2-3 days (everyday if we can) the rows are walked, checking for new panicles that are ready. It’s tedious sometimes, but the amount of bagging will taper off soon and we can focus crossing.

In my next post (which will be coming sooner than later hopefully), I’ll explain crossing in finer detail. Till then, catch you on the flip side!

Anthracnose Inoculations

The sorghum is growing rapidly in the field, thanks to the rains that we had a couple weeks ago. I’ve been amazed at how much progress a single plant can make in as little as one day’s time, not to mention the variation of the plots –varying height, leaf widths, even the heads and seed of the plant.  Not having any prior experience with sorghum, and really no farming experience either, I learn so many new things each day.



*Anthracnose of Sorghum

 

One experiment that is being performed this year is testing for anthracnose resistance. Anthracnose is a fungal disease that is particularly prevalent in hot, humid areas.¹ It affects the foliage and stems of the sorghum and can cause severe yield losses.² To test the plants for resistance we inoculated one of the fields with this pathogen. The fungus is spread by wind and water, so the past few weeks were ideal for inoculating. To do this, anthracnose was propagated in lab and then mixed with seed which would be scattered on healthy sorghum. We walked the field (the plants were close to waist height by this point) dropping about a tablespoons worth of seed every few plants, aiming for the whorls of the leaves. It wasn’t necessary to get the fungus-coated seed in every plant because infection would spread through the plots as the plants with seed became infected. Now, we just wait for the anthracnose to do its dirty work.



Whorl of a plant

It was an adventure, to say the least, trying to traverse the fields these past few weeks. With all the rain, mud is an obvious and unavoidable evil. Mud equates to heavy rubber boots and parking far from the field to prevent the vehicles from getting stuck. For me, it equated to mud-covered everything, getting my boots trapped in the goopy, quicksand-like substance, and a few war wounds in the form of blisters. But it also meant cooler temperatures which is always a plus! In the next few weeks, work is going to get crazy as we begin crossing, so check back soon for updates.

Toodles!  

 

References:

¹http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27455/anthracnose

²http://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu/food-crops/cereal-crops/grain-sorghum/

 

* http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1436040 

 

 

The Wonderful World of Sorghum: An Overview of my Internship

Howdy and welcome! My name is Kathleen Hill and with this first entry, I’d like to give a little background about myself and the purpose of this blog.

To begin with, I am a senior horticulture major at Texas A&M University (Whoop!) with a study emphasis in fruit and vegetable production and management. I actually came to A&M as a biomedical sciences student with the intension of becoming a small animal veterinarian, but plans changed and I ended up in horticulture, and I’ve loved every minute of it! To those who may be wondering, horticulture, as defined by Webster’s dictionary, is a branch of agriculture concerned with the cultivation of garden plants—generally fruits, vegetables, flowers, and ornamentals.¹ Horticulture is a broad field with many career possibilities ranging from managing a nursery to landscaping to floristry to research. I myself am hoping to work for Texas AgriLife Extension as a county extension agent after graduation.

Now on to the meat of the post: the purpose of my blog. This blog will function as a chronicle of my activities as an intern for Texas AgriLife Research’s Sorghum Breeding Program.

Welcome to Sorghum Breeding!

What is sorghum, you might be asking. It’s a grain, like wheat or corn, that is grown worldwide. Sorghum is drought and heat tolerant making it an efficient crop. Here in the United States it’s used mostly as livestock feed and to produce ethanol.² However, use of sorghum in food products is on the rise because it is naturally gluten-free. It can also be popped and eaten, like popcorn.³ The sorghum breeding program focuses on crossing sorghum lines to create genetically superior hybrids. They are bred for everything from pathogen resistance to higher quality grain to lodging resistance.



Sorghum field

I’ve actually been working for this program since February as a student worker and up till now my main responsibilities have been preparing seed to be planted, preparing the field, and then actually planting the sorghum. The duration of my internship is from June 2^st to August 1^st, and during that time we will be working with the sorghum doing a variety of tasks like thinning plots, irrigating the fields, taking notes, pollinating, and eventually harvesting the grain. I intend to post weekly about what we’ve been doing so feel free to check back for updates about my internship.

 

 

References:

¹ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/horticulture

² http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/31/231509864/heat-drought-draw-farmers-back-to-sorghum-the-camel-of-crops

³ http://sorghumgrowers.com/sorghum-101/