Effect of Reduced Application of Phosphate and Potassium Fertilizer on Sugar Beet Production in the Abashiri Area

Abstract

We examined the effect of reduced application of phosphate and potassium fertilizers on sugar beet production in brown andosol fields in the Abashiri area of Hokkaido in 2001∼2003. We could not find any significant difference in the leaf length, number of leaves and root growth between the sugar beet grown in fertilization-reduced plots and the standard fertilization ones. In 2002, the sugar content of sugar beet in the fertilization-reduced plot was higher than that in the standard fertilization plot, but no significant difference was observed in leaf and stem weight, root weight, or sugar yield between the two plots. By reducing the amount of phosphate and potassium fertilizer is reduced to about 70% of the standard fertilization, the contents of available phosphate and exchangeable potassium in the soil were kept at values higher than the diagnostic standard value of Hokkaido. These results suggested that the growth and yield of sugar beet in the brown andosol field in the Abashiri area would be unaffected by the reduced application of phosphate and potassium fertilizer.