EVALUATION OF SUGAR BEET PARAMETERS DURING STORAGE

Abstract

Storability of four sugar beet varieties was tested during the winter season of 2006 -2007 at Elguneid Sugar Cane Research Center. Sugar beet varieties iv used in this study were Juvena, Mashad, Valentina and Brigitta. The storage conditions were at room, outdoors and underground temperature. The chemical analysis for samples was carried out for the fresh varieties samples and stated as control where the rest of the samples were optioned according to the following schedule: 24hrs, 48hrs 72hrs, one week, two weeks and one month with average of three replicates for each test. For the fresh samples of Juvena, Mashad, Valentina and Brigitta the moisture content was 80.7%, 83.8%, 81.1% and 81.1% respectively. Ash content was 0.560%, 0.562%, 0.651% and 0.650% respectively. Protein content was 0.210%, 0.226%, 0.202% and 0.190% respectively. The weight loss % for the tested varieties after 24 hours storage ranged from 5.57% to 8.32% and 5.65% to 6.70% for room and outdoor samples respectively. Increasing of storage time and according to the statistical analysis for weight loss % it was shown that there was no significant variation between varieties. The pulp % for fresh tested varieties ranged from. 2.99% to 3.89%, but the statistical analysis showed no significant variation between different varieties. Purity % for fresh samples was 81.18, 78.59, 82.45 and 79.66 for Juvena, Mashad, Valentina and Brigitta respectively. The statistical analysis for purity% showed that there was no significance variation between varieties and storage period, where there was significance variation between treatments with relationship between control and underground results. Reducing sugars% were 0.066, 0.0083, 0.0116 and 0.005 for the fresh samples of Juvena, Mashad, Valentina and Brigitta respectively. The statistical analysis showed, that no significant difference between varieties, while there was high significance between treatments and storage period with comparable results between control and underground treatments. According to the above mentioned results, there is no variation between varieties where the underground treatment possesses good results, and it can be v concluded that the best scheduling of harvesting and the control of the last irrigation date may be the best solution for extending the processing campaign of sugar beet under Sudan conditions.