Sugar beet bolting in the root crop

Abstract

Sugar beet bolting in the root crop was studied during nine growing seasons, under the extreme climatic conditions in which the autumn-sown crop grows in Southern Spain. Bolting is positively correlated with the number of days with minimum air temperatures ranging from 2 to 8 °C or with the number of days with mean temperatures between 8 °C and 13 °C. The occurrence of bolting is also affected by rainfall distribution in so far as it determines the date of seedling emergence.