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ARS Home » Midwest Area » East Lansing, Michigan » Sugarbeet and Bean Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92330
Title: THE EFFECT OF SEED DENSITY ON SEED PERFORMANCE AND YIELD OF SUGARBEETS

Author
item Halloin, John
item JOHNSON, DAVID - MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
item McGrath, Jon

Submitted to: Annual Beet Sugar Development Foundation Research Report
Publication Type: Experiment Station
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Seedling vigor is a major problem in sugarbeet production. Seeds are gravity graded on a gravity table to improve their performance by selection of those with high densities. This experiment was done to determine if the performance of seed lots subjected to separation on a gravity table could be further enhanced by more rigorous density grading. Seeds were fractionated into those which floated on water, those that sank in water but floated on a 1.075 density sucrose solution and those that sank in the sucrose solution. Seeds were evaluated for weight and germination in the laboratory, and for stand establishment and yield in field plots. The most dense seeds were the heaviest, had the highest germination percentages, germinated more quickly, and gave the highest stands in the field. No statistically significant differences were found among seed samples for yield or sugar quality parameters. Improved gravity grading can improve the performance of sugarbeet seeds, but would be likely to increase the cost of seeds to growers.