A. Heidari
Abstract
IntroductionSoil compaction reduces soil porosity and thus, increases the resistance and bulk density of the soil. These changes limit water and air movement and root penetration in the soil and ultimately, they may reduce the seed germination and the crop yield. For planting sugar beets, tractors and ...
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IntroductionSoil compaction reduces soil porosity and thus, increases the resistance and bulk density of the soil. These changes limit water and air movement and root penetration in the soil and ultimately, they may reduce the seed germination and the crop yield. For planting sugar beets, tractors and equipment need to move several times on the ground, which is a factor in soil re-compaction and the loss of the effects of previous tillage. Therefore, if, after planting, inter-row tillage was done, it can have a positive effect on reducing the bulk density of the soil and it may even increase yield. Materials and MethodsAn experiment was conducted to determine the effect of inter-row tillage on the sugar beet yield and its quality and water use efficiency during two years cropping period (2016-2017) in Ekbatan Research Station, Hamadan with loam texture soil. A strip plot experiment with eight treatments and three replications was used. Irrigation regimes consist of 100% of sugar beet water requirement (I1) and 75% of sugar beet water requirement (I2) were considered as main plots. Inter-row tillage operations consist of combined cultivator equipped with chisel and crescent blades to 20-25 cm soil depth (T1), a simple cultivator equipped with crescent blades (T2), crescent cultivator + inter-row subsoiling to 30-35 cm soil depth (T3), combined cultivator equipped with rotary and sweep blades to 20-25 cm soil depth were considered (T4 ) as sub-plots. During the experiment, some physical properties of soil including bulk density and soil cone index were measured. At the end of the growth season, the root yield and yield of white sugar were measured and analyzed statistically. Results and DiscussionThe results showed that the effect of inter-row tillage methods on the soil bulk density and soil cone index was significant. The T3 treatment (crescent cultivator + inter-row subsoiling to 30-35 cm soil depth) had the highest effect on reducing the cone index and bulk density of soil, but the lowest root yield was obtained. Due to the low spacing of rows (50 cm) in the sugar beet cultivation, as well as the structure of the subsoiler and its depth, it is possible that the subsoiling caused the moving of the roots and minor damage to it. The effects of irrigation and inter-row tillage and their interactions on quantitative and qualitative yield of sugar beet were not significant. The results of analysis of variance of treatment effect on the water use efficiency showed that the effect of inter-row tillage on the water use efficiency was not significant. The effect of water requirement on the water use efficiency on the basis of sugar and white sugar performance was significant at 5% probability level. The treatment of 75% of water requirement increased the efficiency of water use based on the root yield, sugar yield and white sugar yield by 4%, 14% and 7%, respectively. Therefore, with the goal of reducing water consumption and not significantly reducing the yield, after plant establishment, it can reduce water use by about 25%. ConclusionThe effect of inter-row tillage on the cone index and bulk density of soil was significant and subsoiling treatment caused a further reduction of these two indices compared to the other inter-row tillage methods. The effect of inter-row tillage and water requirement on root and sugar yields was not significant. According to the results, after planting completely establishment, the water use can be reduced by about 25% (this decrease in the total length of sugar beet growing was about 15%).
K. Hedayati; B. Emadi; M. Khojastehpour; Sh. Beiraghi-Toosi
Abstract
Sugar, which can be extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet, is one of the most important ingredients of food. Conducting more research to increase the extraction efficiency of sugar is necessary due to high production of sugar beet and its numerous processing units in northern Khorasan province. In ...
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Sugar, which can be extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet, is one of the most important ingredients of food. Conducting more research to increase the extraction efficiency of sugar is necessary due to high production of sugar beet and its numerous processing units in northern Khorasan province. In this research, the effect of temperature, time and the frequency of ultrasonic waves on mechanical properties of sugar beet and its extraction rate of sugar in moisture content of 75% were studied. In this regard, an ultrasonic bath in laboratory scale was used. The studied parameters and their levels were frequency in three levels (zero, 25 and 45 KHz), temperature in three levels (25, 50 and 70 ° C) and the imposed time of ultrasonic waves in three levels (10, 20 and 30 min). Samples were prepared using planned experiments and the results were compared with control sugar beet samples. A Saccharimeter was used to measure the concenteration of sugar in samples. Two different types of probe including semi-spherical end and the other one with sharpened edges were used to measure mechanical properties. The studied parameters of frequency, temperature and time showed significant effect on sugar extraction and their resulted effect in optimized levels revealed up to 56% increase in sugar extraction compared with control samples. The obtained values of elastic modulus and shear modulus showed a decreasing trend. The obtained values of total energy of rupture, the total energy of shear, the maximum force of rupture, and the yield point of rupture showed an increasing trend. The frequency had no significant effect on the yield point of rupture and shear force.
