Malheur Experiment Station Information for Sustainable Agriculture

Commercial varieties and experimental lines of sugar beets were evaluated to identify lines with high sugar yields and root quality. A joint seed advisory committee evaluates the accumulated performance data for the varieties, and restricts growers in Idaho and Malheur County of Oregon to planting only those varieties ranking above minimum industry requirements.

Nineteen commercial and 43 semi-commercial varieties of sugar beets were evaluated in a trial conducted by Oregon State University at the Malheur Experiment Station. Seed for evaluation was received from American Crystal, Betaseed, Hilleshog Mono-Hy Inc., Holly, Seedex, and Spreckels beet seed companies. The sugar beets were planted in Owyhee silt loam soil where winter wheat was grown the previous year. Soil pH was 7.3 at the site on the Experiment Station. The soil organic matter was 1.2 percent. The field was plowed in the fall of 1994. One hundred lb/ac of phosphate and 60 lb/ac of N were applied as a broadcast treatment before plowing. An additional 150 lb/ac of nitrogen was added by sidedressing ammonium sulfate after thinning. Two lb ai/ac of Nortron was broadcast for weed control and incorporated using a spike-tooth bed harrow before planting.

The commercial and semi-commercial varieties were planted in separate trials. Each entry was replicated eight times using a randomized complete block experimental design. Each plot was four rows wide and 23 feet long with 3-foot alleys separating plots. Approximately 12 viable seeds per foot of row were planted in each plot row. The seed was planted on April 10 and 11 with a cone-seeder mounted on a John Deere model 71 flexi-planter equipped with disc openers. After planting, the sugar beets were corrugated and furrow-irrigated to furnish moisture for uniform seed germination and seedling emergence.

The sugar beets were hand-thinned during the first week of May. Spacing between plants was approximately 7 inches. In mid-July, and again on August 10, 80 lb/ac powdered sulfur was spread by aerial application and by hand over the foliage to protect the sugar beet leaves from powdery mildew infection.

The sugar beets were harvested during the third week of October. The foliage was removed by a flail beater and the crowns clipped with rotating scalping knives. The roots from the two center rows of each four-row plot were dug with a single-row wheel-type lifter harvester, and all roots in each 23 feet of row were weighed to calculate root yields. A sample of eight beets was taken from each of the harvested rows and analyzed for percent sucrose, pulp nitrate nitrogen, and conductivity. The percent extraction was calculated using a formula which required percent sucrose and conductivity readings as factors.

Variety performance has been grouped by seed company (Table 1 and 2). Each variety was ranked (designing order) within each company's variety by yield of recoverable sugar per acre. The data was analyzed statistically for LSD value at the 5 percent level of significance, and coefficient of variation for each variable is reported.

Yields of recoverable sugar from commercial varieties ranged from a high of 14,300 pounds of sugar/ac to a low of 11,250 pounds of sugar/ac, with a variety mean of 12,550 pounds of sugar/ac.

Yield of recoverable sugar from semi- commercial lines ranged from 14,270 pounds of sugar/ac to a low of 11,120 pounds of sugar/ac, with an entry mean of 12,560 pounds of sugar/ac.

Table 1. Root yields, sugar yields and root quality data from sugar beet lines entered as commercial varieties at the Malheur Experiment Station, Oregon State University, Ontario, Oregon 1995.

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Malheur Agricultural Experiment Station

Last updated  Tuesday July 30, 2002 .