Seed yield of sugar beet as affected by stand density and harvesting date

Abstract

A three-year field trial was conducted to study the effect of plant population and harvesting dates on the yield of cleaned 2.0-6.0 mm seed and the seed yield (g) per plant. The highest seed yield was obtained with a spacing of 50 × 12 cm, or 160,000 plants/ha. A decrease in the plant-to-plant spacing to 9 cm decreased the yield by an average of 70 kg/ha over the three study years. The seed yield decreased to an even greater extent when the plant-to-plant spacing was 16 or 24 cm. The seed yields increased the most between the first and second harvesting dates: 400 kg/ha, or 50 kg/ha a day. On the last harvesting date, the seed yield was as low as 5-8 kg/ha. The yield loss was somewhat higher in the most densely sown treatment. The effect of spacing and harvesting date on seed yield per plant was similar to that on total seed yield.