INFLUENCE OF BASIC MINERAL FERTILIZER AND FOLIAR FEEDING WITH MICROELEMENTS ON SUGAR BEET SEEDS YIELD, STRUCTURE AND QUALITY

Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) is one of the most important industrial crops, which is the main raw material for sugar production – a product of strategic importance widely used in food and pharmaceutical industries. In this regard, the provision of domestic beet growing with seeds of domestic hybrids that are competitive with the best foreign ones is particularly relevant. The purpose of the research is to study the effect of the basic mineral fertilizer and microelements boron and zinc on the sugar beet seeds yield, structure and quality indicators. The studies were carried out in the experimental fields of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Sugar Beet and Sugar named after A.L. Mazlumov, located in the zone of unstable moistening in the Central Black Soils region in the northwestern part of the Voronezh region (Ramon village). The soil of the experimental site is represented by leached hard loamy chernozem with a medium humus content of 4.5 %. Field experiments were laid in 2018–2020 according to the methodology of B. A. Dospekhov. The experiment scheme included the following options: control (without fertilizers); double foliar feeding of seed plants with a 0.1 % solution of a mixture of boric acid and zinc sulfate before the flowering; N160P160K160; N160P160K160 + foliar feeding. Laboratory analyzes of seed quality were carried out according to GOST 22617.2 – 94. The data obtained indicate a significant effect of the basic fertilizer (N160P160K160), which contributed to a 0.53 t/ha (45.3 %) yield increase compared to the control. The sowing qualities of seeds also increased significantly: germination energy by an average of 10.3 % abs., germination – by 9.8 % abs., good quality – by 5.4 % abs. Foliar dressing with microelements had practically no effect on the yield; however, it provided a significant increase in the indicators of the sowing qualities of seeds: germination energy – by an average of 3.3 % abs., germination – by 4.7 % abs., good quality – by 4.6 % abs. Direct dependence of the value of the yield of seeds on the constituent elements of the structure was also revealed: the type of bush of seed plants, the number of productive shoots, their height and seeding per unit length. The correlation coefficient (r) for all three paired dependences of the quantities was 0.99.