Response of Root Yield and Quality of Sugar Beet (Beta Vulgaris) To Salt Stress

Pot experiment was carried out in greenhouse conditions to investigate the response of root yield and quality of sugar beet cultivars irrigated with saline water (tap water as control, 50 mm, 150 mm, 250 mm and 350 mm naci + cacb in 5 to 1 molar ratio). root yield decreased with increasing salinity. the low level of salinity decreased root yield of madison and p29 cultivars by 25% and 36.1%, respectively as compared to the control, while high level of salinity decreased root yield by 95.7% and 89.1%. root sucrose content of the two cultivarsincreased with increasing salt concentration up to 150 mm but further salt concentration, tended to decrease root sucrose content of cv madison. salinity significantly increased the concentration of a-amino-nand na+ in the storage root. in contrast, potassium contet tended to decrease at high levels of salt treatment. salt stress increased unwanted sugars such as raffinose, glucose and fructose in the storage root. although root impurity increased with increasing salinity, whitesugar content (wsc) increased up to 150 mm salt treatment due to increasing sucrose content.however, higher salt concentration decreased the white sugar content of cv madison because of the inverse effect of high levels of salinity on the sucrose content as well as greater molasses sugar. cultivar p29 had greater white sugar content than madison at high levels of salinity. thegreater white sugar content in p29 at 150mm and 250 mm was due to a greater root sugar content while at 50 mm salinity, it was because of lower molasses sugar. these results indicated that white sugar content increased at moderate salinity but white sugar content per plant drastically decreased because salinity had a greater effect on root yield than on white sugar content. therefore, for saline lands, plant density per unit area should be considered.