Effect of Some Post-Harvest Treatments on Quality Attributes of Sugar Beet during Storage under Toshka Region Conditions

Abstract

The present study was carried out during 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons at Desert Agricultural Research Station (DARS), Toshkaregion, Aswan Governorate. The effect of post-harvest treatments; covering with leaves and dipping in Ca(OH)2 (1%), during storage periods (0, 2, 4 and 6 days) on quality characteristics of some sugar beet varieties (Oscar poly, Athospoly, Sarah, Ravel and Friancesca) under Toshka region conditions was investigated. The results showed that Post-harvest treatments had a significant effect on weight loss, sucrose, purity, losing sugars for molasses, sugar recovery and beet quality percentages. The best values of all studied traits were recorded for the roots that covered with leaves. Sucrose, purity, sugar recovery and beet quality percentages significantly decreased (P<0.05) while losing of weight and sugar percentages for molasses increased as a storage period increased up to 6 days. Concerning sugar beet varieties, Athospoly sugar beet variety was showed superiority over the other varieties in sucrose (60.37 and 69.82 %) and sugar recovery (52.35 and 59.23%). Ravel variety was recorded the best values for purity (92.81 and 92.70%) and beet quality (86.49 and 85.94%), while Friancesca variety was recorded the lowest values for weight loss percentage (14.21 and 14.09%).