Purpose: to select sugar beet hybrids for cultivation on irrigated lands of the Lower Don floodplain.
Materials and methods. The studies were conducted in 2023–2024 on an experimental plot located in the Oktyabrsky district of the Rostov region in the Lower Don floodplain. The plot soil is classified as heavy loam in terms of granulometric composition. The soil bulk density in the 0–40 cm layer is 1.32 t/m³, in the 0–60 cm layer – 1.31 t/m³. According to agrochemical parameters, it is very high in potassium, high in phosphorus, and low in nitrogen. The studied hybrid was Prestige, included in the State Register for the North Caucasus region, and the Visit hybrid, a promising sugar beet hybrid bred by the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Pervomayskaya SOS. Irrigation was carried out using a drip irrigation system. The soil cultivation system was applied according to the established zonal farming system of the Rostov region.
Results. The maximum plant height was observed at the leaf opening phase for the Prestige hybrid at a seeding rate of 120,000 units/ha, and for the Visit hybrid at 110,000 units/ha, and amounted to 70.1 cm and 75.2 cm, respectively. In hybrid crops, the largest leaf surface duration area is formed at the leaf closure phase in the row spacings – from 70.2 to 77.4 thousand m²/ha, depending on the seeding rate. The maximum yield indicators for the Prestige (135.3 t/ha) and Visit (146.7 t/ha) hybrids were in 2023.
Conclusion. A comparative evaluation of hybrids showed that, on average, over two years, the Visit hybrid, at its optimal seeding rate (100,000 units/ha), yielded a higher yield (142.1 t/ha) than the Prestige hybrid, at its optimal rate (110,000 units/ha), which yielded 138.3 t/ha. This indicates the Visit hybrid's potentially higher productivity and, possibly, better adaptability to the specific soil, climatic, and agrochemical conditions of the experimental plot, including the drought period of 2024.
sugar beet, sugar beet hybrid, morphological features of sugar beet hybrids, agrochemical soil parameters
Balakai G. T., Baeva A. M. Selection of sugar beet hybrids for cultivation on irrigated lands of the Lower Don. Ways of Increasing the Efficiency of Irrigated Agriculture. 2026;98(1):262–275. (In Russ.).
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