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Breeding Sugar Beets

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Breeding Field Crops

Abstract

The sugar beet Beta vulgaris L. is a product of plant breeding. It is one of the few major cultivated crops that was not grown in prehistoric times. The sugar beet was developed in Europe less than 200 years ago by selecting the best sugar types from fodder beets grown as forage for livestock. Beet sugar rapidly became an important article in world trade and now supplies about 45% of the world’s sugar of commerce. The sugar beet is the primary source of sugar in Europe and the USSR. About one-third of the sugar used in the United States comes from domestically grown sugar beets. Sugar beets are grown in 13 states and three provinces in Canada. In the United States, the gross yield of sugar beet roots averages 40–50 tons per hectare, from which about 7 tons of sugar are obtained. Under favorable conditions, yields of 50–75 tons of sugar beet roots may be produced. The sucrose stored in the roots of sugar beets normally ranges from 13 to 18% of the gross weight, varying with the variety, its culture, and the climate in which the beets are grown. An inverse ratio between tonnage and sucrose percentage exists; as tonnage per hectare is increased, either from cultural methods or by breeding, the sucrose percentage tends to decline.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Missouri, Columbia, USA

    John Milton Poehlman (Professor Emeritus)

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  1. John Milton Poehlman
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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Poehlman, J.M. (1987). Breeding Sugar Beets. In: Breeding Field Crops. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7271-2_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7271-2_21

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-015-7273-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7271-2

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