Beet

Botany

Scientific name: Beta vulgaris L. Family of the Chénopodiacées, tribe of the Cyclolobae (according to the traditional Classification) or family of the Amaranthacées (according to the phylogenetic classification).

This plant, Dicotylédone, Apétale, would derive from maritime beet (currently classified like Beta vulgaris L. subsp. maritima (L.) Arcang.) which is spontaneous on the maritime shores in Europe. The species Beta vulgaris L. includes also the Poirée or white beet, which was regarded before as a distinct species ( Beta cicla (L.) L.).

Principal cultivated varieties

There exist three types of beets:

Sugar beet, rich in Saccharose;
mangel-wurzel;
beet pot, also called beet , red carrot or red root .

There exist many varieties, classified differently according to the types. The sugar beets richest in sugars, of white color and are very buried. One classifies them according to their output out of sugar, their resistance to diseases such as the Rhizomanie and the brown Rhizoctone and their tolerance with the Nématode S.
Les mangel-wurzels is various colors, various forms and more or less buried. One classifies them mainly according to their content of dry matter.

Among pot beets, one can quote the bearing , very old, rustic and late variety, long the red black of the virtues with bulky, very productive root and the black punt of very early Egypt from which the roots are almost not buried.

It was shown recently that there exists at the beet Beta vulgaris ssp maritima, a dormancy, i.e. a state of latency of seeds in spite of a favorable environment. The methods are in the course of experimentation.

Description

The cultivated beet is a biannual plant:

first year, vegetative phase: development of the sheets and constitution of the fleshy root, accumulation of reserves out of sugar, it is also the phase of culture;
second year: montaison and flowering, production of seeds.

Uses

Sugar beet : production of Sugar, after rapage of the root, initially by extraction of sugar by warm water; the grated beets from which one extracted sugar constitute under product the Pulpe of beet which is dehydrated by pressure then by heating and which is used to nourish the cattle. Then the beet juice is purified, concentrated then either fermented to be distilled and give alcohol or by Cuisson, crystallized and separated from its impurities which form the Mélasse which contains sugar 50% more; the molasses are used especially for the manufacture of alcohol or are incorporated in the beet pulp for the food of cattle. Very incidentally, it can be used with the production of Levure as bakery; the Collet S and the sheets are useful for the animal feed or are restored on the ground (green manure).

Economy

The culture occupies approximately 7 million hectares in the world, especially in Europe of North and with the the United States;

Worldwide production (FAO 2002):

Sugar beet: 246,5 million tons, including 120 for the European Union;
Mangel-wurzel: 10 million tons;

France is the first world beet sugar producer. This culture is concentrated in the north of the country.

In the European Union, the culture of sugar beet is regulated within the framework of the common Agricultural policy. Each country has a production quota authorized in lower part of which the price is guaranteed, on a level higher than world rate.

Production of sugar beet

Culture of sugar beet

The sugar beet is the first industrial crop in France. Its producers are gathered under the banner of the General confederation of the beet growers, or CGPB.

In France, one sows beet mid-March after the frosts of winter; it needs six months hot and sunny to complete the formation of the root; she likes the grounds rich, deep, fume well. Until in the Years 1970, after the Sowing, it was necessary to carry out “thinning”, i.e. with the elimination of the surplus seedlings. The seeds are naturally grouped by three (in fruits called triakenes). They are seed S multigermes, except if they were prepared. For this time, thanks to the genetic selection, the seeds have been from now on monogermes (only one seed per cluster). They are sown in place, seed by seed, thanks to specific Semoir S.

The beet seed being very small and containing very little reserve, this culture is very sensitive to the Battance. Indeed, during sowing, the seed is hidden to 2-3 cm of depth, when the Cotylédon S point on the surface, the seedling with completion hydrolized its reserves, it thus has an urgent need of sun to begin the Photosynthèse (and energy production). If it meets an obstacle like a crust of battance, it cannot face there and the seedling dies.

The nitrogenized Fertilization must be without excess under penalty of harming the sugar yield. The beet has a consumption known as “of luxury” because it draws Potassium enormously (because of its origin halophyte), its requirements out of potash are thus high (approximately 4 kg per ton of roots). It requires grounds with basic pH.

The emission of the sheets follows a phyllochrone of 40 °C day. The maximum number of sheet does not seem to be limited. Separately the two first, the sheets is placed according to a propeller of row 5 (3rd and 8th are superimposed).

The Saccharose (C12) is directly produced in the sheets. This one is tiny room in Glucose (C6) in the body-wells at the time of the growth, then stored (if surplus) in the root. The high content in sugar is a big factor of the final quality of harvest, and the purchase price depends on it, it is expressed in % and varies today between 16 and 20.

The enlargement of the root starts early, the “moult of beet” corresponds to an enlargement of the heart (differentiation of Xylème and tertiary Phloème secondary then) which causes to burst the bark which cracks. The average output varies from 60 tons to 90 tons of roots to the hectare.

The furrow saccarifère, a folding up of the root, is in the collimator of the Semencier S because it hangs an important ground mass during pulling up. It thus makes decrease the cleanliness (its quality and thus its price) of the goods delivered to the industrialist.

The harvest of sugar beet is mechanized, using combined machines (Grubbing plow-stripper-screw cutting machine).

Enemies of sugar beet

Its principal enemies are the Puceron S vectors of the jaundice, the Mouche of the beet or Pégomyie ( Pegomyia betae ), the Taupin S and of the diseases like the Rhizomanie, the Cercosporiose, the Oïdium, the Ramulariose and the black Pied.

History

The beet is known like vegetable since Antiquity. The first hard copies come us from the Greeks with the O C the principal races of beet were described with the Moyen-âge, in particular by Matthiole. The origin of the food use of the roots of beet seems to be in the large plain which extends from the Germany to the Russia

In 1600, Olivier de Serres writes in the theater of agriculture and mesnage of the fields :

“ a species of pastenades is the beet, which from to us Italy does not have a long time. It is an extremely red root, adzes gross, whose sheets are white beets, and all that to eat good, installed in kitchen: even the root is arranged between the delicate meats, whose juice which it returns while cooking, similar to sugar syrup, is very beautiful to see for its vermilion color. ”

He sought the first to extract sugar from beets but did not succeed in finding a process profitable.

In 1747, a German, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, had succeeded in extracting the beet sugar. Its pupil, professor Achard, puts this discovery at the profit of the Prussian Academy. This initiative leads in March 1802 to the startup of the first beet sugar factory in the world with Kürnen-on-Oder (Silesia). The production is artisanal: 70 kg of beets are treated the every day, giving approximately 2 kg of sugar.

The November 21st 1806 constitutes a date hinge for the European sugar economy. To answer the Blockade imposed by the British armies on the French ports, Napoleon I {{er}} founds the continental Blocus: all the British goods are consequently prohibited on the French soil, which includes cane sugar coming from the the Antilles. To compensate for the sudden cane sugar shortage, the emperor decides to support actively the production of sugar beets. In a few years, many factories of transformation are created.

The first industrial sugar extraction was the work of a French, Benjamin Delessert, in 1812.

When the blockade is raised, the cane sugar of the colonies floods the market again. Under the weight of competition, the emergent industry shows the blow. A great number of sugar refineries closes their doors after having undergone important losses. The abolition of the Slavery, in 1848, generates a big rise in the price of cane sugar and a reduction in its production. The beet ones benefit from it. The more so as the sugar refineries gradually improve their outputs thanks to construction of large production units.

Others

the Beets, group of Punk French.

External bonds

www.labetterave.com, the gate of sugar beet
ITB, technical Institute of beet, Paris, France
Royal Institute for the improvement of beet, Tienen, Belgium
Site of reference on mangel-wurzel
www.lesucre.com - the sugar beet

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