Sugar‐beet treatments, water supply and depth of sowing

Summary With variation in rainfall patterns, evaporation, seedbed soil structure and depth of sowing, sugar‐beet seed and seedlings can be subjected to damaging extremes of water availability. Under controlled conditions, seed given progressively longer pre‐sowing treatments (steeped for 12 h at 25°C or advanced for 4 days at 25°C) was more tolerant of non‐optimal conditions than seed given a brief steep (20 min at 15°C). The prolonged steep treatment accelerated emergence and increased establishment (3% on average) in the field, compared with the brief steep. Advanced seed consistently gave the quickest emergence, produced as many plants as the prolonged steep, and was less affected by depth of sowing so its introduction should improve the establishment phase of the sugar‐beet crop.