IMPACT OF PLOWING DEPTH AND HOEING ON THE SUGAR BEET QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY UNDER TWO DIFFERENT PLANTING METHODS.

Planting density is the major factor affecting yield and quality of sugar beet. The main aim of this work is to study the effect of planting method, plowing depth and hoeing times on sugar beet yield and quality. The planting machine (Gamma 90) and manual planting with three plowing depths (15, 25 and 35 cm), and one, two and three hoeings were used in this study. Field experiment was carried out at Sakha Agricultural Research Station at Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate in Egypt, through the two successive seasons 2000/2001 and 2001/2002. The obtained results can be summarized as follow: The planting machine gave the maximum root yields (29.875 and 30557 ton/fed) compared with the manual planting ( 24.820 and 26.450 ton/fed) in both seasons respectively, using plowing depth of 35cm and three hoeings. This superiority caused by higher number of plants per feddan ( 38267 ) which resulted from planter machine compared with manual which gave the lowest number of plants per unite area "feddan" (21457) under ploughing depth of 35 cm with three hoeings. The highest percentage of sucrose was recorded with planting machine (Gamma 90) which gave 17.05 and 17.83 %compared with the manual planting which gave 16.56 and 17.34 ⁰/0 at 35 cm plowing depth and three hoeings in both season, resp. 3-The plowing depth of 35 cm and using three hoeings gave the maximum values of sugar yield of 5.074 and 5.525 ton/fed compared with the other depths in both seasons,resp. 4-The other characteristics recorded the highest values with (Gamma 90) planting machine compared with manual planting under 35 cm plowing depth and three hoeings for root dimensions, root volume and upper part of root percentage.