Abstract
This study was carried out to evaluate four sugar beet cultivars grown at four different sowing dates at Deirab Agricultural Experimental Station, College of Agriculture, King Saud University during the winter of 1990 and 1991.
The results indicated that top yield, biological yield, total soluble solids (TSS), reducing sugars (RS) and non-reducing sugars (NRS) differed significantly among seasons and cultivars. In addition, there were significant differences between sowing dates with regard to all characters studied. Highly significant positive correlations were found between root yield and top yield and between biological yield, and root and top yield. A highly significant negative correlation was also found between the average weight of root and TSS.
Statistical analyses indicated that there were no important significant interactions for cultivars x seasons, cultivars x sowing date and cultivar x sowing date x seasons, indicating the stability of the four cultivars under different environments.
It could be concluded that the period from October, 15 to November, 1 was the most suitable period for sowing sugar beet in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia.