Author(s): S. D. Behera and M. K. Arvadia

Abstract: A field experiment was conducted during the winter (rabi) season of 2015-16 at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari to assess the effect of land configuration and tropical sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) cultivars on yield and quality of root under south Gujarat condition. Nine treatment combinations comprising three land configurations, viz. flat bed, ridge furrow and raised bed allocated to main plots and three varieties, viz. ‘SV 887’, ‘SV 889’ and ‘SV 892’ allocated to sub-plots were evaluated in split-plot design with four replications. Among land configurations, raised bed planting gave fresh root yield of 68.36 t ha^-1. Among cultivars, ‘SV 887’ gave the maximum root yield of 64.63 t ha^-1. But Planting of ‘SV 887’ on raised bed recorded the maximum of 69.57 t ha^-1 beet root yield. Among cultivars,‘SV-892’ recorded the maximum TSS of 19.12%, sucrose content of 16.42% and sugar recovery percentage of 14.08% and proved significantly superior to other two cultivars. From sugar yield point of view, bed planting recorded the maximum sugar yield of 9.67 t ha^-1 among planting methods and ‘SV 887’ gave the maximum sugar yield of 8.92 t ha^-1 among cultivars. Planting of ‘SV 887’ on raised bed recorded the maximum sugar yield of 9.84 t ha^-1. Among various land configurations, raised bed method recorded the minimum BD value of 1.37 g cc^-1 and ridge and furrow method recorded the statistically similar value. Planting of sugar beet cultivar ‘SV 887’ on raised bed was found promising with respect to yield and quality of beet root in heavy black soil of south Gujarat.

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