Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) contains fermentable sugars in the stem that can be converted to ethanol. The current study aimed at evaluating the performance of three sweet sorghum genotypes with five checks and contributes towards availing suitable sweet sorghum for industrial ethanol production. Field studies were carried out in Kenya at varied locations in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Sorghum was harvested at hard dough stage of grain and evaluated for cane yield, juice volume and fermented to ethanol. Analyses of variance using SAS version 9.1 showed a significant effect of genotype for morphological characters and ethanol yield. Genotype EUSS10 produced highest cane (27.4 t/ha) and juice yield (7806.7 l/ha) whereas ACFC003/12 recorded maximum ethanol yield (423.1 l/ha). In all sites, the maximum plant height and days to 50% heading corresponded to EUSS10 whereas Brix and total sugar corresponded to SS04. Highest grain yield and non-reducing sugar was recorded by SS17 and SS21, respectively. The results of this study show that though Brix and total sugars are desirable for ethanol yield, cane yield, and juice volume of sweet sorghum determines the ultimate volume of ethanol. Keywords: sweet sorghum; genotypes; stalk juice; ethanol

Keywords: sweet sorghum; genotypes; stalk juice; ethanol