The effect of small doses of nematicides on migratory root-parasitic nematodes and on the growth of sugar beet and barley in sandy soils

Smaller amounts of D–D (6–12 gal/acre) (68–135 1/ha) or ethylene dibromide (9 gal/acre) (100 1/ha) than are customarily used to disinfest field soils killed many root-parasitic nematodes (Trichodorus, Pratylenchus, Tylenchorhynchus and Longidorus attenuatus) when injected 6–8 in (15–20 cm) deep during early autumn in rows 10 in (25 cm) apart in well-drained sandy soils. They also increased the yield of sugar beet grown in fields infested with Trichodorus or Longidorus attenuatus, without affecting sugar percentage or juice purity of the roots, and in some places increased the yield of barley grown after the beet. D–D was much less effective when injected 8–12 in deep during late autumn or winter. Increasing nitrogen dressings to the seedbed from 1·5 to 3 cwt/acre (188 to 376 kg/ha) increased sugar beet yield in one field, decreased it in another and decreased juice purity in both. In two other experiments extra nitrogen did not affect sugar beet yield. Even smaller amounts of the nematicides ‘placed’ in the rows, before or after sowing sugar beet in them, killed many of the nematodes and also increased sugar yield. Phytotoxic nematicides can be placed in the rows during autumn, winter or spring but placement is simpler during spring, when the treated rows are indicated by the position of the marks of the tractor wheels left when the nematicide was applied. When applied during autumn or winter, the rows need to be indicated by drilling wheat or grass.     

The effect of field margins on the yield of sugar beet and cereal crops

The effect of field margins on the yield of sugar beet, wheat and barley was studied on commercial farms and in a series of field experiments from 1992–1997. There was always a trend of increasing yield from the edge of the field to the centre, with a marked reduction around the ‘tramlines’ and the area where machinery turns. In the studies on commercial farms, headland yield loss varied widely. In sugar beet the headlands yielded 19–41% less than the centre, with a mean reduction of 26%. In cereals the range was 3–19%, with a mean loss of 7%. Headland yield reductions were generally smaller in the field experiments than those found on commercial farms. These headland effects did not move towards the centre of the field when grass margins were planted at the edge of the field; there was no significant effect on the yield of the adjacent crop. The presence of boundary trees had the greatest effect on yield: in the outer 9 m of the field, the area shaded by trees produced 4.4 t ha^-1 of wheat, and the area that was not shaded 8.1 t ha^-1. Turning of machinery also significantly reduced yield, while grazing by rabbits and hares surprisingly had no effect. Following the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy in 1992, the main effect of which was to change from a price support policy to direct payments to producers, farmers in the European Union who produce more than a specified tonnage of ‘eligible crops’ per year, are required to fallow a given percentage of their land (currently 5%), to qualify for Arable Area Payments. Growers can elect to fallow fields on a rotational basis, or permanently. Headland set-aside is a term used to describe strips of set-aside, a minimum of 20 m wide around the edges of fields. In these experiments, the headland effect did not extend beyond 20 m from the field edge. Therefore, particularly in fields with boundary hedges or trees, headland set-aside could effectively remove the poor-yielding area at the field margin.     

The effect of soil fumigation with D-D on the yields of sugar beet and other crops

An experiment in a field where sugar beet in 1965 had suffered from Docking disorder caused by Longidorus attenuatus tested the effect of fumigating the soil with 3741/ha D-D and two amounts of nitrogen fertilizer on different crop sequences between 1966 and 1969. Although severe Docking disorder did not recur in sugar beet, fumigation increased yield in each of the three following years. Yield of barley was increased for 4 yr and of wheat, potatoes and ryegrass for 1 or 2 yr after treatment. All plant parasitic nematodes were controlled by the first fumigation and the numbers of those in unfumigated plots 3 yr after treatment. Fumigation also largely prevented infection of sugar beet by the fungus Helicobasidium purpureum.     

The effect of light and temperature late in the season on the growth of sugar beet

Sugar-beet plants were subjected to all combinations of two day temperatures (12-5 and 18-5 ^oC), two night temperatures (8-o and 14-0 ^oC) and two light intensities (275 and 550 J cm-² of visible radiation in a 12 h day) during the last month of their growth. Cold day or night temperatures resulted in the plants having slightly smaller leaf areas, final dry weights and amounts of sugar in their roots than plants grown in warm temperatures. Plants grown in the cold also contained less water, particularly those given cold nights, so that they had smaller fresh weights and a greater concentration of sugar in the fresh, but not in the dry roots, than plants grown in warm conditions. Halving the light intensity had little effect on leaf area but decreased the net assimilation rate. The final dry weight of the shoot was not affected by changing the light intensity, but the dry weights of the roots of plants grown in dim light were 20 % smaller than in plants grown in bright light and they contained correspondingly less sugar. There was no effect of varying the light intensity on the concentrations of sugar in the fresh or dry roots. There was no evidence that cold night temperatures, either alone or in conjunction with bright conditions during the day, induced the storage root to accumulate sugar faster relative to non-sugar dry matter, i.e. to 'ripen'.     

The effect of beet cyst nematode, Heterodera schachtii, on the yield of sugar beet in organic soils

In ten experiments on commercial sugar-beet crops grown on organic soils in 1984–86, a Genstat programme was used to examine the relationship between the initial population of Heterodera schachtii and sugar-beet root yield using the equation
Y = Ymin + (Ymax - Ymin) Z^pi-T
Fixing T = 200 eggs + juveniles 100 g^-1 soil and Z^T= 0.95, estimated values of Ymax varied from 49.2–67.1 t ha^-1 (129– 155% of the national average root yield for the years in which the experiments were carried out) and estimates of Ymin varied from 14.5–53.9 t ha^-1 (27–94% of Ymax). The estimated average root yield loss caused by the nematode was 6.95 t ha^-1.     

The effect of polyamines on the development of sugar beet protoplasts

The influence of the exogenous polyamines: putrescine, spermidine and spermine, on the frequency of protoplast divisions for 2 genotypes of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) was analyzed. Protoplasts were cultured by the agarose disk method on Saunders and Doley medium supplemented with either hormones or polyamines, or hormones combined with polyamines. The latter supplement led to a statistically significant increase in plating efficiency. The improvement in division index was caused mainly by spermine. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effects of soil fumigation and nitrogen fertilizers on nematodes and sugar beet in sandy soils

In fifteen experiments on light land infested with plant-parasitic nematodes, fumigating the soil during the previous winter with D-D increased the average yield of sugar-beet roots from 25 to 36 t/ha; this was more than that obtained with various forms of nitrogenous fertilizers used in amounts up to 250 kg N/ha. Application of 85 kg N/ha increased yields on fumigated plots by 7 t/ha, and there was little benefit from giving more. Fumigation killed 65 % of the Pratylenchus spp., 80% of the Trichodorus spp. and 90% of the Tylenchorhynchus spp. in the top 5 cm of the soil and, at 15–20 cm deep, 90, 93 and 95% of these three genera. The increased yield from fumigant at different sites was not correlated with the initial populations of nematodes. The average increase in yield from fumigation was only poorly correlated with rainfall during May. The increases in nematode populations between April and August depended on rainfall, and were 0positively correlated both with the accumulated rainfall for the 10 weeks before sampling the soil in August and with the rainfall during the week previous to sampling. Fumigation not only improved the health of roots, and so enabled them to use nitrogen more efficiently, but also increased the amount of available nitrogen in the soil and decreased the amount lost by leaching. Injected anhydrous ammonia did not affect the populations of nematodes.     

The growth and development of the storage root of sugar beet

A study was made of the growth of the storage root of sugar beet as a sugar accumulating organ. The storage root grew by simultaneous cell multiplication and expansion from a series of peripheral secondary meristems laid down during the early stages of development. The weight of water and of non-sugar dry matter per cell increased in proportion to the increase in cell volume. The amount of sugar per cell was proportional to cell volume only during the initial stage of cell expansion up to volumes of about 15 times 10^-8 cm³; thereafter it was less proportional. Thus, average cell size is a major determinant of the sugar concentration of the storage root. The implications of this are discussed.     

The effect of partial defoliation on yield of sugar beet

Sugar-beet plants were defoliated during growth in seven experiments from 1968 to 1974 either (1) by removing each leaf as it became fully expanded or (2) by removing with scissors as soon as possible all leaves except certain groups up to leaf 50 , but mainly 6 to 20 , or (3) by treating the growing point chemically or mechanically in an attempt to stop the production of leaves after the twentieth. Removing mature leaves decreased yields considerably, but removing all leaves except 6–20 did not decrease significantly total dry matter yield of the whole plant and in one experiment increased it by 7% and root weight by 15%. Remaining leaves had a greater photosynthetic efficiency as measured by growth analysis and a ¹⁴C0₂ feeding technique because they were less shaded or there was reduced competition for some nutrient or essential growth component. Additional leaves formed beyond the twentieth resulted in a proportionately lower photosynthetic efficiency of all leaves, but attempts to treat the plant to stop production of new leaves beyond the twentieth were inconclusive.     

The effects of temperature on leaf growth of sugar beet varieties

Leaf growth of nine varieties of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) was studied at constant temperatures of 7, 11, 15 and 20·C, using generalised logistic curves fitted to the data to estimate the parameters of growth. The rate of leaf appearance increased linearly with temperature and was the same in all varieties. There were differences between varieties in the weighted mean rates of expansion of leaf area per plant (ā), the temperature coefficient of ā and the leaf area duration (D); these differences were caused more by differences in rates of expansion and final sizes of individual leaves than by differences in rates of leaf production. The growth of the first six leaves produced by each plant was examined in detail. The greater size of successive leaves of plants and genotypic differences between comparable leaves were more attributable to differences in the rate than differences in the duration of leaf expansion. Increasing temperatures increased leaf size because they accelerated the rate of expansion more than they shortened the duration of the expansion phase. It is inferred that all effects arose through differences in the initial sizes of leaves before they unrolled from the shoot apex. Dry matter production was proportional to D but was partitioned more to the storage root at the colder temperatures. This may have been related to the differential effects of temperature on cell division and expansion and the relative contribution of these two processes to the final sizes of the leaves and storage root.     

The influence of soil-applied fungicides and previous cropping on the development of violet root rot of sugar beet

The proportion of sugar-beet roots infected by Helicobasidium purpureum increased most rapidly in September and October. Violet root rot was not controlled by fungicides applied at drilling or in July. Heavily infected roots yielded 31% less sugar than healthy or lightly infected roots. Sugar beet following infected carrots lifted or ploughed in during July had no more violet root rot than when following barley or fallow, but the beet crop became heavily infected when it followed carrots left in the ground until December, whether they were then lifted or ploughed in. Eight varieties of sno-ar beet did nnt differ in siiscenrihilitv to violet root rot.     

黄土高原甜菜叶片生长特性及其对块根产量、含糖量的影响

通过对旱地甜菜叶片生长特性及摘除不同叶组对块根产量,含糖量,显微结构的影响研究,结果表明：甜菜第10-20片叶的叶龄最长,积温最高,是甜菜的主要功能叶;甜菜从第20片叶期起进入块根,糖份增长期,从第55叶期起进入糖份积累期;摘除不同叶组的叶片对甜菜块根产量,含糖量及显微结构均有不同程度降低作用,摘除前期叶组对甜菜块根产量,产糖量,根径减幅较大,摘除后期叶组对块根含糖量,维管束环数,维管束环密度减幅较大;摘除第1-30片叶对甜菜影响最大。     

The effect of nematicides, applied to the seed rows in spring, on growth and yield of sugar beet in Docking-disorder-affected fields

Both Trichodorus spp. and Longidorus spp. damage roots of sugar-beet seedlings in sandy soil, causing Docking disorder. Trials in infested fields between 1969 and 1972 tested the effects of fumigation along the rows with different amounts of D-D or Telone applied either two weeks before sowing or immediately before sowing, application of the systemic nematicide aldicarb (Temik) in the furrow with the seed during sowing, and top-dressing with nitrogen. Seedling establishment was often decreased by fumigation immediately before sowing, especially when followed by excessive rainfall, but only rarely by earlier fumigation or by aldicarb; differences in numbers of roots harvested were smaller because hand-singling removed excess seedlings. There was usually little difference between the yield increases given by the most effective treatments, which were aldicarb at 1·12 kg active ingredient/ha and 2·2–6·6 ml D-D or Telone/m of row at either time of application. Nitrogen top-dressing never affected sugar yield significantly. Longidorus spp. and Trichodorus spp. were both controlled well in the fumigated row but much less well at 13 cm, and not at all at 25 cm from the row (i.e. mid-way between two treated rows).     

The relationship between numbers of Heterodera schachtii and sugar beet yields on a mineral soil, 1978-81

In a 4-yr field experiment on a mineral soil infested with beet cyst nematode (Heterodera schachtii) the relationship between root yield of sugar beet (y) and initial population of H. schachtii (P_i) fitted the equation: y=y min +(y max - y min) Z^Pi-T y min = 7·7 t/ha, y max = 39·4 t/ha, 2 = 0·99938 and T= 0 eggs/100 g soil. From this information and that obtained during a recent survey of 2766 beet fields, the total national root yield loss caused by H. schachtii was estimated as approximately 10 000 t/annum on mineral soils and (assuming a similar yield loss relationship on all soil types) 30 000 t/annum on organic soils. No consistent differences in efficiency of extracting cysts were found between the Fenwick Can and the flotation column. A bioassay technique was as effective as cyst extraction techniques in identifying infested soils.     

The effect of cereal break crops on barley mild mosaic virus

The effects of growing one, two or three years of resistant barley or winter wheat on barley mild mosaic virus were studied in experiments on two naturally-infested sites in Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire. Disease incidence and yield of the susceptible cultivars Igri and Maris Otter following a three year break were not significantly different from those of control plots that had grown continuous susceptible barley. The effects of cropping sequence treatment on soil populations of the fungus vector, Polymyxa graminis, were assessed by estimating most probable numbers of propagules following bioassays. Variability was large and neither total numbers of propagules, nor those carrying virus, was significantly affected by the cropping treatments.     

Effects of shading and of seasonal differences in weather on the growth, sugar content and sugar yield of sugar-beet crops

In 1967 and 1968 plots of sugar beet in two identically grown crops were shaded for successive four week periods starting on 13 June, 18 July and 22 August, and the growth of the plants compared with that on unshaded plots. At the beginning of each period in 1967 some shaded and unshaded plants received additional nitrogen, and in 1968 plants continuously shaded from June to September were compared with unshaded plants irrigated to equalize their water losses with those of the shaded plants. The weather in 1967 was sunny and dry and that in 1968 dull and wet, but the yields of dry matter, and particularly of sugar, of the unshaded crop in the 2 years were similar because, although net assimilation rate (E) was greater in 1967 than 1968, mean leaf area index (L) in 1968 was almost double that in the 1967 crop. Shading decreased the incoming radiation by 56%; it decreased E proportionally in 1967, increasing L slightly, but it decreased both E (by 44%) and L in 1968. The weights of dry matter and sugar in the roots of the shaded crop were consistently smaller at the end of shading and at final harvest in October in both years, and their weights, but not those of the tops or the whole plant, at final harvest over all shading treatments in both years were proportional to the amount of radiation received by the crop between June and September. Although shading greatly decreased the supply of photosynthate to the roots, it did not change the sugar content percentage of dry matter, except in the early stages of growth when the sugar content was rapidly increasing. Sugar content percentage of fresh weight of the roots was consistently decreased by shading, wholly because water content was increased relative to dry matter. Therefore the sugar yield of shaded plants was less because the dry weights of the roots were less, not because the partition of photosynthate between sugar storage and root growth changed. There appears to be a mechanism within the root operating over a wide range of photosynthate supply that maintains a nearly constant proportion of sucrose to non-sugar, contrary to the hypothesis that sugar stored in the roots is photosynthate in excess of what can be used in growth of the plant. However, in the extreme condition of continuous shading which drastically decreased the dry weights of all parts of the plant, sugar percentage of dry matter in the roots was decreased, but only from 80 to 70%. In 1967 extra nitrogen applied at the start of shading increased L and the dry weight of the tops in all periods, but had no effect on the dry weight of roots. Because 1968 was a wet year the irrigation treatment had no effect on E or L except for a slight increase in L during the first period; it had no effect on plant dry weight. Both irrigation and additional nitrogen decreased the sugar content percentage of fresh weight of the roots only by altering their water content; sugar percentage of dry matter was unaffected. None of these changes persisted until the final harvest in October.     

Effect of seedling treatment on growth and yield of sugar beet in the field

Sugar-beet seeds were germinated (1) in a growth cabinet at 20°C lit continuously by fluorescent tubes (L), (2) in a cabinet at 20°C lit by fluorescent tubes for 16 h/day (S), (3) in a cage with glass roof and open sides with natural illumination (N), or (4) in the open ground (D). The seedlings from the cabinets and cage were transplanted to the field when they had two true leaves. Samples were taken on six occasions during growth, and leaf areas and dry weights determined. There were no differences between treatments in total number of leaves produced or leaf area duration. Leaf area per plant increased fastest on L plants at first, but from mid-June until end of July drilled plants had the largest leaf surface. From August onwards S plants had the largest area. Although treatment had little effect on growth of the tops, roots grew fastest throughout the season on the plants raised in growth cabinets and the final mean root dry weight of L and S plants was 39% greater than of N and D plants. Throughout the season L and S plants had a larger root:top ratio than plants raised in the cage or drilled directly in the field. The larger roots of plants raised in the cabinets evidently provided a larger sink for carbohydrate and increased the mean photosynthetic efficiency of the leaves over the whole season by 11 % and increased yield of roots by 6 tons/acre.