Effects of irrigation cutoff at seed formation stage on seed yield and germination indices of sugar beet seed

One of the most important goals of sugar beet cultivation is to achieve high seedling emergence and establishment under water deficit conditions. In this experiment irrigation of the seed bearing plants was cutoff in four periods of 750, 1000, 1250 and 1500 GDD after schtechlings were planted and the seeds were formed and grown under water stress. The experiment was carried out as a randomized complete block design with four replications. All treatments were harvested simultaneously and seed yield and seed physical quality characters were determined. In the second step, germination qualities of treatments were determined under 0 and -12 bar osmotic potential in four replicates. Results showed that seed yield of the last irrigation cutoff (1500 GDD) was 7 times more than that yield of the first irrigation cutoff (750 GDD). Standard seed size and germination were increased by postponing irrigation cutoff. Root length was affected more than stem length by the irrigation cutoff time so that, postponing irrigation cutoff up to days before harvest root and stem length 13 and 50%, respectively.