Effects of nitrogen fertilizers, bio-fertilizer and molasses on yield quality of sugar beet plants (Beta vulgaris L.)

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out at the research farm of Nubaryia Sugar and ‎Refining Company (NSRC), located at (30°63' 88.93" N latitude; 30°22′ 46.21′′ E longitude), El-‎Behaira Governorate in the 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 growing seasons. The main objectives of ‎this study were to determine the effect of four nitrogen fertilizer levels (Control, 60, 80 and 100 ‎kg.fed -1 ), three bio-fertilizers treatments (Control, Cerealine® and T.S®) and four Molasses levels ‎‎(Control, 20, 40 and 60 kg.fed -1 ) on yield and quality of sugar beet plants. A split-split plot ‎design with three replications was used, where the nitrogen fertilizer levels were allocated in the ‎main plots and bio-fertilizer treatments were distributed in the sub-plots, as well as molasses ‎treatments occupied the sub-sub plots. The results indicated that increasing nitrogen fertilizer ‎rates significantly improved yield and yield components as well as the quality of sugar beet ‎plants. The highest rates of nitrogen (100 and 80 kg N fed -1 ), bio-fertilizers treatments, (T.S®) ‎and molasses (60 and 40 kg N fed -1 ) produced the highest yield characters (root yield (ton fed -1 ), ‎top yield (ton fed -1 ) and sugar yield (ton fed -1 )) and juice quality characters (total soluble solid ‎percentage (TSS %) and Sucrose %) throughout the 1st and 2nd seasons, respectively, without ‎significant differences. The interaction between nitrogen rates, molasses and bio-fertilizers (80 kg ‎N fed -1 + 40 kg Molasses fed -1 + T.S) gave the highest values for most all studied characters. So, ‎bio-fertilizer treatments proved a major role in crop production optimization and are expected to ‎reduce the pollution of the agricultural environment.