Effect of plant density on harvesting quality of sugar beet
2000
Bavorova, M. | Koch, H.J. (Institut fuer Zuckerruebenforschung, Goettingen (Germany))
Many trials have shown that high yields and quality can only be obtained with a minimum plant population of 80,000 plants per ha. If the plant population greatly exceeds this value, farmers are concerned about a decrease of harvesting quality. The aim of the present research was to examine the effect of plant density and harvesting speed on harvesting quality. In 1998, a field trial was established with 4 levels of plant density (50, 75, 82,108 thousand plants per ha ) and 2 levels of harvesting speed (3.5 and 5.5 km per hours). A split-plot design with 3 replicates was used. The treatments were harvested with a 6-row self propelled tanker harvester. The setting was optimised for each plant density and each speed. The highest plant population resulted in the least amount of acceptable topped beets and the greatest proportion of over topped and untopped beets. More untopped beets were also found with plant populations of 75,000 plants per ha. Both plant densities resulted from spacing of 16.7 cm. With increasing speed the amounts of untopped beets increased. At the same time, the portion of acceptable topped beets decreased. Losses due to root breakage were lowest with plant populations of about 80,000 plants per ha. Increasing the harvesting speed resulted in larger portions of root breakage.
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