ACTA AGRONOMICA TOMUS 12. (A MTA AGRÁRTUDOMÁNYI KÖZLEMÉNYEI, 1963)

1963 / 1-2. szám - L. MAGASSY: Selective Fertilization in Beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

SELECTIVE FERTILIZATION IN BEET (Beta vulgaris L.) By L. MAGASSY RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR PLANT BREEDING AND PLANT PRODUCTION, SOPRONHORPÂCS (Received August 25, 1961) Thorough knowledge of the processes of reproduction is a prerequisite in plant breeding and determines from the very first the techniques to be appli­ed in breeding as well as in seed growing. The better we are acquainted with the reproduction biology of a plant, the more resolutely can we proceed in develop­ing the appropriate methods of breeding. Such knowledge is especially im­portant if plant species well-suited to heterosis-breeding are dealt with. Among these the beet may also be classed, research-work carried out in the course of the past 30 years having shown that by the use of different techniques (e.g. intervarietal crosses, crossings between inbred lines and between varieties at different levels of ploidy, etc.) improved beet varieties can be produced. All these efforts have already brought many a success on the economical plane and hybrid varieties are now widely utilized in beet cultivation. Yet for all the progress achieved in this field, the possibilities which heterosis­breeding of beet offers, are still far from being exhausted. Experimental work carried out in this country for several years resulted in proving the superiority over the foreign and home varieties cultivated heretofore of the diploid, but mainly of the polyploid hybrid beet varieties. In Hungary's beet-growing areas mostly these are now being produced and their export begins also to show promising trends. The extensive utilization of heterosis in beet-breeding is greatly jeo­pardized by the fact that the emasculation of the hermaphrodite flowers cannot be performed on a large scale. Heterosis-breeding and hybrid seed-growing thus depend on techniques more complicated and more difficult in the case of beet, than in plants where obstacles of this kind are easily overcome. In beet-breeding therefore, methods working well with other plant species, yet modified according to the peculiar features of beet are to be applied and, of course, new techniques have to be developed. The investigations reported below were conducted over four years to ascertain whether fertilization in beet does take place in complete accordance with the present concept or with some deviations from it, and if so, whether the discrepancies encountered are of an exceptional or of a common occurrence. 1 Acta Agronomica ХИ/1 —2.

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