IN-STORAGE WEIGHT LOSS BY TABLE BEETROOTS DEPENDING ON THE ROOT PULP STRUCTURE

Purpose - to determine the in-storage weight loss by table beetroots depending on the root pulp structure. Methods. 1. General scientific: hypotheses – drawing up designs of experiments; experiments - conducting laboratory tests; analysis and synthesis – summarizing and concluding. 2. Computantional and analytical. Results. Beetroots naturally lose their weight during storage and this process is uneven. At the beginning, it is quite rapid, then it gradually slows down, accelerating in spring. Of the studied beet cultivars, the greatest losses of weight during storage were registered for cvs. 'Renova' and 'Tsylindra'. The weight loss by beetroots was correlated with a decrease in the dry matter content, which was spent on the respiration of beetroots to support their vital activity. In beet cvs. 'Renova' and 'Opolskyi', the decrease in the dry matter during storage was greater, amounting to 5.6 and 4.5%, respectively. There was a relationship between cell area and in-storage water evaporation. It was revealed that in cells with the largest area of 140.04·103 μm, the evaporation-caused losses amounted to 77.7% (cv. 'Karilon'), while in cells with the smallest area of 62.89·103 μm, this parameter was only 10.5% (cv. 'Opolskyi'). Conclusions. There was a direct strong correlation between water evaporation and cell size (r = 0.791). There was a significant second-order curvilinear dependence of beetroot weight loss on cultivars' features (R2 = 0.6041–0.9910).