Early seedling vigour in sorghum and its relationship with resistance to shoot fly, Atherigona soccata Rondani

Results of field experiments on the significance of early seedling vigour in sorghum for shoot fly (Atherigona soccata Rond.) resistance among different groups of parents having diverse breeding/selection history and their hybrids indicated that high early growth rate is associated with shoot fly resistance. Differences between seasons for expression of early seedling vigour was significant indicating strong seasonal effect on the genetic control of shoot fly resistance. The resistant parental groups and their hybrids showed significantly high seedling vigour compared to susceptible parental lines and their hybrid groups. Further, the low seedling vigour was dominant over high seedling vigour under low temperature conditions