May 3, 2001

Seed Spacing Important to Sugarbeet Growers

Yield and quality can be affected by the choice of seed spacing made at planting time according to Joe Giles, NDSU soil science associate professor and Allan Cattanach, general agronomist with American Crystal Sugar Company. "We’d like to see spacing running from four to no more than six inches," says Cattanach. "Six inches may be getting a little too wide. At that width, if we encounter stress conditions, we may not get the plant population that is needed.

"With proper spacing, growers should end up with approximately 65 to 70 percent emergence with a plant population of around 160 to 180 beets emerged," says Giles."With normal losses, growers will see an optimum plant population of 160 beets per hundred feet of row at row closure."

The key part of any growing season is getting the sugarbeet planters ready for the field according to Cattanach "And make sure you also have the right plate and vacuum settings on the vacuum planters."

The speed at which beets are planted can also make a difference. "The Milton planters shouldn’t be used above 3 miles per hour, the John Deere plate planters at 4 miles per hour and the Maxi-2 units run well at 41/2 miles per hour," says Giles.

There are a number of options if plant populations are greater than anticipated. Cattanach says hand labor has been used to thin the crop in the past but not to any great extent in the last few years. A harrow or rotary hoe can be used but are best if only a small drop in population is needed. Pickett thinners have become popular in the past few years. "You can take a plant population that may be over 200 beets or approaching that number and get down to that 155, 160 or 165 per hundred foot of row effectively with the Pickett thinners," says Cattanach.

Cattanach says delayed planting this year can have an adverse effect on crop yield and quality. "Any time we plant after about the first week in May we can expect a loss of 1 to 1 1/2 tons per week of delay. But growers shouldn’t panic. Yes, we are going to have a good percentage planted a little later than we’d like. However, we still have an opportunity to get at least an average crop and maybe a little bit better if we can get a good share of the beets in the ground by the 15^th or 20^th of May."

Growers have the capability of planting a lot of beets in a short period of time according to Cattanach. "Growers are set now to plant 100 to 200 acres a day and more so a lot of the crop can be planted in just a week’s time."

Cattanach is cautioning growers not to plant if conditions are too wet. "It may cause some compaction which tends to stay around through most of the growing season. It may also cause the seed furrow to open back up which means you won’t have good seed to soil contact for germination and emergence."

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Source: Al Cattanach, (218) 236-4487, acattana@crystalsugar.com
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, Richard_Mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu

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