Abstracto

The Longitudinal Tensile Strength Properties of the Sorghum bicolorStem

H.P. MASEBU, M. J.CROOK, D. R. WHITE, R.J. GODWIN

Sorghum is the staple food of indigenous people of the arid areas of the world because it is adapted to these climatic conditions better than other major cereal crops. The longitudinal ultimate tensile strength of stem for four glass-house grown sorghum varieties namely Birdgo (B), Mr-Buster-Thiram (MBT), Mundy (M) and Prime-Silo (PS) was determined. The magnitude of the stem ultimate tensile strength of the Prime-Silo variety recorded at 739 N was significantly greater than those of the other three varieties namely Birdgo (388 N), Mundy (390 N) and Mr-Buster-Thiram (480 N), these later varieties had no statistical significant difference between them. The mean ultimate tensile strength of stem was 491±127 N. The ultimate tensile strength of roots is higher than that of the stem of the respective varieties. Therefore the plant is most likely to fail through stem separation than through uprooting if exposed to a vertical longitudinal pulling force.