10-23 IAT Low Beet Sugar
Sweetness results. Over the last week or two, I had conversations with Mark Duffin of the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association. Prior to the total harvest, Mark was happy about the yield but questioned the amount of sugar in the beets. “The reports I am getting are that the crop is looking good. The yields, even though we had a bad spring, recovered with the extra warm summer so the yields are coming in pretty good although the sugar is a little low. Does weather affect the content of a beet? Yes. A couple of things affect it. The nitrogen in the soil, if the beet is still growing, the plant will put its energy into the tops instead of storing sugar in the root so they try to get the nitrogen to run out so the beet will start storing sugar. This year with the extra heat it appears that a lot of the crop, they had what they called the mineralization of the organic matter in the soil so it kept releasing nitrogen so the nitrogen levels are still a little higher than we would like to see them so the beets are still growing tops instead of storing sugar. The cooler weather usually triggers the beets to starch storing sugar but it is all interrelated between the nitrogen levels and the weather and then just the crop maturing.” Well here is a postscript. Amalgamated Sugar Company officials say that the sugarbeet crop was great in yield but lower than the average of 15% sugar content.
