Study on Silo Potential of sugar beet lines resistant to Rhizomania disease

A quality decrease of sugar beet roots under silage condition may vary for susceptible and resistant to rhizomania cultivars. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of resistant to rhizomania sugar beet pollinators under silage condition in Karaj (non rhizomania infected area) in 2014 and in Zarghan(infected to rhizomania site), Fars, Iran in 2015-16. The experiment was conducted in split plot in time based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. Studied factors included 11 sugar beet line comprised of nine genotypes, on susceptible and one resistant cultivars and silage duration including three levels of 20, 40 and 60 days. Different traits such as root dry matter, sucrose, sodium, potassium, alpha amino nitrogen, brix, and extraction coefficient of sugar were measured before and after silage. Roots were scored in terms of rot occurrence after silage. Results showed that rot severity of the roots in Zarghan was higher than Karaj. In Zarghan, the root rot of the sugar beet genotypes 31924, 31927, 31929, 32003, 32814 were lower than other genotypes after 60 days silage. During the three-years experiment, the silage potential of the sugar beet genotype 32003 with 71.86% extraction coefficient of sugar was more than other genotypes which can be used as a genotype with better silage condition in sugar beet breeding programs.