The traditional production of linear material  and hybrids in the selection of red beet is a time-consuming,  long-term process due to the two -  year cycle of plant development, self-and cross-incompatibility,  inbred depression. Significantly  reduce the life cycle of the plant allows the vernalization  at different stages  of  development, including during  the  "steckling". Cultivation  of plants with the use of steckling culture in the selection of red beet has not yet found wide application and has not been studied enough, in this regard, in 2009-2018 on the basis of the Federal  State Budgetary  Scientific Institution “Federal Scientific Vegetable Center”. The material of the study was inbred offspring I1-5, which were studied in several series of independent  experiments using different schemes of growing stecklings and roots (one-year and biennial  cycles).  It is shown that the use of culture of steckling and protected ground for breeding schemes to create lines of red beet is advisable, as it accelerates the  process of  evaluating the  heterogeneity of inbred progenies for earliness, index, root, the manifestation of cytoplasmic  sterility, and also allows you to get a wider range of different  inbred forms due to the high variability  in the offspring. The probability of a valuable fully-sterile ms-forms  higher in the group of early maturing plants with a large mass stecklings and promising self-compatibility  mf-lines - among small fractions of mid and late inbred offspring. The continuous use of steckling culture should be recommended only for the preliminary evaluation  of breeding  material on sign of cytoplasmic sterility, followed by the reproduction of selected promising inbred offspring in the open field ("halves method"),  and at later stages of  the breeding process as a  rapid assessment of crossing combinations on sign of cytoplasmic sterility when checking mf-forms on the fixing ability. The alternation  of the culture of stecklings with the traditional biennial cycle of culture in conjunction with the techniques of recurrent selection and use of different backgrounds  (field, greenhouse),  can improve the performance of the selection and get aligned according to the main economic-important  signs of promising inbred offspring in a shorter period of time.

It is necessary not only to possess the technology to grow seeds but also to have knowledge of plant biology in particular crop, and sowing qualities of its seeds. The particular place where seeds are forming on the mother plant has much influence on qualities of sowing seed material. The influence of the development of red beet plant bush on seed productivity, monogermity and sowing qualities of seeds was estimated in Rostov oblast. The main stalk pruning and application of plant growth retardants had an effect on the structure of red beet bush. In variants given in seed plants, the third type of branching prevailed due to lack or oppression of main stalk. Consequently, the seed yield and proportion of single fruit formation rose. It was also shown that due to treatment of plants with growth retardant ‘Floron’ at the stage of waxen maturity significantly improved the seed germination as compared with control variant. As a result of the study it was shown that the mechanical pruning of main stalk and application of growth retardants had affected on the structure of seed red beet bush increasing the yield mono-seed compounds as well as had improved the yield and seed quality of monogerm red beet.

The field experiment has revealed that application of green manure and mulching of seedlings by organic matters and zeolite-containing clay increases the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and improves agro-physical parameters of soil. As consequence the yield of red beet has increased up to 14-34%, the root weight has increased up to 11-16 g, and the standard output has increased up to 3-7%. The improvement of biochemical and phytosanitary quality of roots was revealed.

Phenotypic characteristics defining the CMS in plants of red beet have been studied. The level of sterility varied from 5 to 100 %. Four groups of anthers were sorted out where each group distinguished by certain color, diameter, the number and size of pollen grains inside. The increase of sterility of plants provoked the decrease of pollen diameter, pollen viability in fertile flowers; along this the speed of pollen tube growth is reduced.

Relevance. In the transition to highly productive and environmentally friendly, in particular, organic agriculture and production of safe and high-quality products, which is a priority direction of strategies of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, one of the necessary links is the creation and control of optimal conditions of plant nutrition, i.e. provision of plants with nutrients in the right combination throughout the vegetation. Achievement of such conditions is possible through soil and plant nutrition diagnostics, which in turn allows to establish the ability of crops to assimilate nutrients from the soil and adjust the doses of mineral fertilisers as top dressings.Material and Methods. On alluvial meadow soil in the conditions of the non-Black Earth region of Russia, the effectiveness of root feeding with macronutrients (NPK) was studied according to the results of plant and soil diagnostics of table root crops nutrition when grown on organic and mineral fertiliser systems. Plant and soil diagnostics of mineral nutrition was carried out according to the methods of Zerling V.V. (1990) and Magnitsky K.P. (1972). Two crops were tested during the experiment: red beet variety Mulatka and garden carrot variety Losinoostrovskaya 13.Results and Discussion. Root fertilizers on the basis of nutrition diagnostics on the basis of soil and leaf petiole analysis made significant changes in the dynamics of basic nutrients in the soil, there was an increase in nitrate nitrogen and mobile potassium in comparison with the control variant, with natural soil supply of mobile phosphorus (more than 250 mg/kg), which had a positive effect on the root nutrition of plants. At the main application of mineral and organic (biocompost BIUD) fertilizers, root fertilizers according to nutrition diagnostics the carrot yield 51,2-63,9 t/ha with standard 87,4- 94,6%, red beet 41,7-54,2 t/ha with standard 80,7-92,3% were obtained. Root feeding of carrots by soil diagnostics N52K14 on the background of biocompost gave 24.9% increase to the control, by plant diagnostics N17 gave 16.6%; red beet by soil diagnostics N65K45 – 30% increase, by plant diagnostics N54K30 – 23.7%

Relevance. The main source of the natural pigment betanin is table beet, known for its medicinal and antioxidant properties, earliness and long shelf life, rich in bioactive compounds, minerals and vitamins. This research was induced by the lack of information required by breeders to increase betanin content in beet. Metabolite profiling is an effective way to assess the interplay between individual metabolites and betanin content in table beet.Materials and methods. The material was selected from the the N.I. Vavilov Institute of plant industry (VIR) collection. Biochemical analysis was based on VIR’s guidelines, and metabolite profiling on gas chromatography, coupled with mass spectrometry.Results. 17 free amino acids were found in the beet root extract. The greatest number of positive correlations with other amino acids (r˃0.72) was found in tyrosine, alanine and phenylalanine. A significant (r = –0.66) negative correlation was observed between betanin and succinic acid, credibly associated with betalamic acid. Sucrose predominated among carbohydrates (95%). Sucrose and maltose showed a weak positive correlation with betanin. Unsaturated oleic and saturated palmitic acids dominated among fatty acids (52% and 20% of total fatty acids, respectively). Earlier-ripening and cold-resistant table beet accessions showed a predominance of unsaturated fatty acids and lower betanin content. The disclosed interactions are important for betanin-rich red beet breeding.

The article presents the results of ecological and geographical study of table beet samples of the VIR collection. The study was carried out between 2014 and 2016 in three stations located in different soil and climatic zones of the Russian Federation: in Leningrad, Moscow and Krasnodar regions. The main attention is paid to the interaction of the genotype and the environment, as the main reason for the considerable variability in the yield of table beet varieties when growing them in different ecological and geographical zones. Today the search and creation of an initial high-yielding and versatile material for breeding of adaptive beet varieties is one of the most important trends in the table beet breeding programs. The article describes the evaluation of the factors of time and place of cultivation on yield. The factors that make the greatest contribution in the formation of yield are identified. Significant variability in the yield of collection samples, depending on the cultivation zone, was noted. Samples for the intensive type of cultivation in different zones are identified. The variety of table beet for inclusion in breeding programs, as a source of adaptability and high yield is recommended. The variety of table beet «Perfected Detroid Dark Red» (Canada) is recommended for inclusion in breeding programs as a source of adaptability and high yield.

The effects of different fertilizer rates, irrigation, sowing rate for carrot and red beet were studied in the field condition in food-hills zone of Chechen Republic. The use of N40-80P40-80K40-80 caused the increase in yield from 22.8 to 30.8-33.2 t/ha or by 35-46%, when cultivating a carrot crop. Under irrigation the yield increases by 30-33%. Application of N40P40K40 and maintenance of soil moisture at 70% of moisture rate provoked the improvement in value, market and biochemical characteristics of roots; where the increased contents of dry matter, total sugar and vitamins were observed. The mathematical modeling for the process of yielding abilities and root quality in carrot and red beet showed that highest productivity can be achieved on chernozem soil at Central Pre-Caucasus zone when the level of mineral plant nutrition was N40-60P40-60K40-60. The further increment in fertilizer doses does not bring an improvement to yields and leads to decrease in quality of yields. The increased level of antecedent soil water moisture 70-75% of moisture rates does not raise the yield, on the contrary decreasing at the same time the root quality. The use of mathematical modeling enables to rationally define the fertilizer rates depending on application of irrigation and sowing rates in cultivation of carrot and red beet.

The long period of time needed for production of homozygous ms-and mf-lines in biennial crop is a problem in development of heterotic hybrids in red beet. The use of steckling culture and protected cultivation technology are the  suitable methods  to  speed  up  the  development  of breeding lines. However, the relationship between exhibition of CMS trait in seed plants and horticulturally valuable traits of steckling is very important aim of the study to be considered. The study was performed in 2012-2014. The red  beet  inbreeding  lines (I2-I5), obtained  through steckling culture in low-volume technology under protected cultivation condition were used as a plant material for the study. The generations that were obtained were from cultivar population ‘Nezhnost’ and a hybrid population of foreign origin. As a result, it was shown that one of criterions of indirect selection of ms-form in inbreeding generation may be the fast-maturity of stecklings that determined their yield weight at harvesting. The average weight of steckling belonging to sterile plants in progenies of different inbreeding generations, not depending on the time of harvesting was higher than in fertile plants. Therefore, probability to select the valuable ms-forms among groups of fast-maturing  plants with  greater weight  of steckling was higher. The selection of stecklings from smaller size groups of middle maturing and late maturing inbreeding progenies is required to  develop valuable mf-lines with high ability for fertility maintaining.

Nine red beet varieties of the VNIISSOK’s breeding are described in the article. The methods of its development, maintenance, utilization in the breeding programs are presented. The cultivars «Bordo odnosemyanaya», «Nezhnosty», «Lyubava», «Gaspadinya» are the sources of the separately fruiting. The breeding of red beet based on fertility and cytoplasmic male sterility is conducted. The best sources for heterosis are cv. «Nezhnosty», «Odnorostkovaya», «Lyubava», «Gaspadinya». The best sources for early-ripening are cv. «Nesravnennaya A-463», «Gribovskaya ploskaya», «Podzimnyaya A-474». Because of the high adaptability, the cv. «Bordo 237» can be recommended for breeding programs in all regions of Russia. The volume of sales and seed production of these varieties are shown.