The influence of production methods on yield and quality of carrots and swedes

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of the production methods on yield and quality of carrots and swedes. The field trials were carried out at the Jõgeva Plant Breeding Institute on 10 m2 plots in 2010. Control, organic and conventional variants were used. Conventional variant consisted of different treatments: for carrots 1) 5 chemicals: two herbicides, two insecticides and one fungicide 2) 3 chemicals: herbicide, insecticide and fungicide 3) one herbicide treatment; for swedes 1) 4 chemical treatments: herbicide, two insecticides, fungicide 2) 3 chemical treatments: herbicide, insecticide and fungicide. Mineral fertilizer was applied to conventional plots and horse manure compost to organic plots at N 80 kg ha-1. By the results, it can be concluded that production method had no effect on marketable and total yield of carrots, but marketable yield of swedes harvested from conventional variant was significantly higher compared to non-sprayed control and organic variant, which were damaged by insects. No significant differences in content of vitamin C were found between production methods of carrots, but the content of vitamin C in swedes harvested from control variant was significantly higher than in the rest of the variants. Conventional variants C3 and C1 and organically grown carrots did not differ in their total sugars content. Only C5 gave result significantly lower than organic. Therefore conventional swedes contained significantly more total sugars than organic. Roots in organic production method contained significantly higher content of dry matter than conventional ones of both vegetables. By the results of one-year study, it can be concluded, that the production method has bigger influence on yield and quality of swedes than that of carrots. The trial series will be continued to get more information.