The objective of this experiment was to analyze the water deficit effects on grain sorghum growth, crop canopy, leaf senescence and inter-node length. The experiment was conduced in a set of drainage lysimeters protected by a rain shelter. The Agroceres 3001 variety was submitted to four treatments: well irrigated, terminal water deficit, pre-anthesis soil water deficit and, post-anthesis water deficit, with three replications. Results indicated that crop canopy was reduced when the fraction of plant available water was reduced to values lower than 0.60. The internode length was reduced for soil water deficit applied during vegetative crop growth. Leaf senescence was activated when the fraction of plant available water was lower than 0.50 in the root system explored depth.
irrigation; crop canopy; leaf area; senescence; lysimeters
