Influence of post-harvest treatments on productivity and quality of sugar beet varieties under Kom Ombo conditions

The present work was conducted at Kom Ombo Agricultural Research Station (latitude of 24o 28′ N and longitude of 32o 57′ E), Aswan Governorate, in the 2020 and 2021 harvesting seasons. This work aimed to study the effect of storage period before processing (0, 2, 4, and 6 days) and root pile coverage (covered with its top leaves or without cover) on yield and technological characteristics of three sugar beet varieties, i.e., Oscar poly, Ravel, and Francesca. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) arranged in a split-split plot with three replications was used. Sucrose, purity, quality index, sugar recovery percentages, roots, and sugar yields were significantly decreased by prolonging the storage period, while root fresh weight loss and impurities were increased. The decreases in root yield at 2, 4, and 6 days after harvesting compared to the control (0 day) were 3.122, 6.908, and 9.179 ton/fad in the 1st season, and 4.041, 6.032, and 8.595 in the 2nd. The decreases in sugar yield at 2, 4, and 6 days after harvesting compared to the control (0 day) were (30.9%, 48.5%, 59.3%) and (25.3%, 37.4%, 52.0%) in the 1 st and 2 nd seasons, respectively. Results showed that covering with its top leaves during storage significantly affected all studied traits except sucrose% at the first season. Roots and sugar yields were increased by 3.495, 1.642, and 0.559, 0.457 in the 1 st and 2 nd seasons, respectively, with leaves covered compared to without covering. The evaluated varieties differed significantly in respect to the studied traits except for the root fresh weight loss and sucrose percentage in both seasons, as well as the sugar recovery percentage in the first season only. All studied traits were significantly affected by the interactions among the three studied factors in both seasons. Under the conditions of the present work, results indicated that beet roots should be delivered for processing as early as possible to minimize root and sugar yield losses.