Ernst, Dávid, Černý, Ivan, Pačuta, Vladimír, Vician, Tomáš, Zapletalová, Alexandra, Rašovský, Marek, Gažo, Ján, and Šulik, Richard
In the field experiments carried out in 2019 – 2020 on the plots of PD Špačince, the influence of agroclimatic conditions of the year on the yield of roots and sugar content of 9 varieties (Alabaster, Francessa, Jagiellon, Klara, Livius, Nicolaus, Pegasus, Punkta Terra) of sugar beet was studied. The plots of PD Špačince are located in a beet production area at an altitude of 153–179 meters above sea level. The area belongs to the warm, very dry areas of Slovakia. By evaluating the results of the experiments, we have established a highly significant influence of temperature and humidity conditions of the tested years, as well as of the variety, on the root yield and sugar content. In 2020, a higher average root yield was achieved in the experiments (81.12 t·ha–1), while in 2019 a lower average yield of 74.59 t·ha–1 was recorded. The highest root yields were achieved in both years by the Pegasus variety, 95.75 t·ha–1 in 2020 and 84.88 t·ha–1 in 2019 with declared tolerance to drought. With a higher root yield in 2020, we also observed a higher yield variability of the tested set of varieties in the range of 22.79 t·ha–1 compared to 2019 with a root yield range of 19.47 t·ha–1. The average sugar content of the tested varieties was statistically significantly different between the years, with a higher average sugar content in 2019 (14.45%), while in 2020 the average sugar content was 14.25%. Statistically, the highest average sugar content in the tested years was found in the Nicolaus variety (15.9%). None of the varieties had individually statistically significantly different sugar content when comparing the same variety between the climatically different years 2019 and 2020, which indicates a higher stability of sugar content compared to the sugar beet root yields in the tested location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]