Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) response to different planting methods and row geometries II: Effect on plant growth and quality

Author: Zahoor Ahmad ^1*, Paigham Shah ², Khair M. Kakar ³, Haytham El-Sharkawi ⁴, Peter B. S. Gama ¹, Ejaz A. Khan ⁵, Toshimasa Honna ¹ and Sadahiro Yamamoto ¹

Received 10 November 2009, accepted 7 April 2010.

Abstract

In the recent scenario of limiting water and land resources, new cultural techniques are being worked out to get maximum benefits from the available resources. Bed planting is one of these techniques which got renowned for water conservation, efficient fertilizer use and other benefits while flat planting is less expensive as well as easy to perform. In spite of this recognition, these new planting techniques could not fetch the attention of crop researchers for sugar beet cultivation. Therefore, the current experiment was designed to compare the conventional ridge planting method (ridges 50 cm apart) with new bed and flat planting techniques under different row geometries. The two sugar beet varieties, Kawe Terma and KWS 1451, were grown on ridges (40 cm, 50 cm and 60 cm apart, pair of ridges 50 cm apart and strip of three ridges 50 cm apart), beds (with two rows 80 cm apart and with three rows 120 cm apart) and flat (with two rows 50 cm apart and with three rows 50 cm apart). Results of the study showed that beet growth (mean leaf area, root diameter and root weight) and quality (sugar percentage, Brix percentage, purity percentage and sugar yield) was significantly affected by new planting methods. The mean root diameter of beets reached a maximum of 12.7 cm on beds with two rows. The mean root weight of beets increased on pair of ridges (1.54 kg) and on the recommended ridge planting method. Sugar and purity percentage of beets increased by 1.1% and 2.7%, respectively, on beds with two rows as compared to the beets planted on conventional ridge spacing. Sugar yield was equally higher on beds with two rows and the recommended ridge planting method. It was observed that the growth and quality of Kawe Terma was exceptionally better than the variety KWS 1451. Meaningfull comparisons were also performed among the different planting methods to evaluate the overall performance of ridge, bed and flat planting methods and results have been discussed. It can be inferred from the results that equally better growth and higher yields can be achieved by replacing the current ridge planting method with new two-rows-bed planting technique.

Key words: Sugar beet, quality, planting methods, row geometries, ridges, bed, flat planting.