Response of Sugar Beet Growth, Productivity and Quality to Foliar Application of Different Forms of Boron Microelement and Number of Sprays Under New Reclaimed Soil Conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Agronomy Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams Univ., Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

T WO FIELD experiments were carried out in private farm (new reclaimed soil) at El Fayoum Governorate, Egypt during 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 growing seasons. These experiments aimed to study the effect of foliar application of different forms of boron microelement and number of sprays, i.e. control treatment (without), Borfam (one spray (I)), Borfam (two sprays (II)), Boric acid (one spray (I)), Boric acid (two sprays (II)), Borax (one spray (I)) and Borax (two sprays (II)) on growth, productivity and quality of sugar beet crop under new reclaimed soil conditions.
Results showed that:

Sugar beet plants treated with Borfam treatment gave the highest values of effective root length, root diameter, root fresh weight, leaves fresh weight and root/leaves ratio (after 150 days from sowing) these values were 23.4 (cm), 18.4 (cm), 1410 (g/plant), 825 (g/plant) and 1.71, respectively. On the other hand, the lowest values of the previous traits were recorded with the control treatment (without boron application).

The results also showed that after 180 days from sowing Borfam (II) treatment recorded the highest values of root and leaves fresh weight, root/leaves ratio, root diameter, effective root length and photosynthetic pigments followed by Borfam (I).

At harvest Borfam (II) treatment showed superiority in all root parameters, i.e. root diameter (52.33 cm), root length (32.00 cm) and root weight (3755 g/plant).

The highest values of root yield (34.63 ton/fad), top yield (7.773 ton/fad), sugar yield (6.00 ton/fad), sucrose percentage (18.86%) and extractable sugar percentage (17.33%) were recorded with Borfam (II) treatment followed by Borfam (I) treatment, while the lowest values were recorded with control treatment (without boron application).

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