Abstract
Two experiments were conducted over two growing seasons (2021/2022 and 2022/2023) in the South of Alamein Region (Moghra), Matrouh Governorate, Egypt, to evaluate the effects of soil covering, planting methods and sugar beet varieties on growth, yield, quality traits and water use efficiency (WUE). Treatments included two soil coverings (black polyethylene mulch vs. no mulch), two planting methods (manual vs. small planter) and four sugar beet varieties (two monogerm: Slama and Gustav, and two multigerm: Faten and Halawa). Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify key traits contributing to performance differences. Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved germination, growth, sucrose content, extractable sugar percentage, root yield, sugar yield and WUE compared to no mulch. Similarly, planting with small machinery outperformed manual planting. Among the varieties, Gustav and Halawa showed superior performance across seasons. PCA revealed that the first three components explained 92.15% of the total variation. PCA1 (55.3% variation) identified root yield and WUE for sugar yield as critical traits, while PCA2 (88.56% variation) highlighted leaf area index and sugar yield. These findings suggest that black polyethylene mulch, mechanized planting and high-performing varieties like Gustav and Halawa enhance sugar beet productivity and resource efficiency. Future research should explore eco-friendly alternatives to plastic mulch and evaluate the long-term impacts of mechanized planting and mulching in semi-arid agriculture.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved sugar beet germination and growth relative to no mulch.
- Taxon
- sugar beet
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0 - Treatment
- Black polyethylene mulche0
- Outcome
- germination, growthe0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- no mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved germination, growth, sucrose content, extractable sugar percentage, root yield, sugar yield and WUE compared to no mulch”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved sucrose content and extractable sugar percentage.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Treatment
- Black polyethylene mulche0
- Outcome
- sucrose content, extractable sugar percentagee0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- no mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved germination, growth, sucrose content, extractable sugar percentage, root yield, sugar yield and WUE compared to no mulch”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved root yield, sugar yield and WUE.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Treatment
- Black polyethylene mulche0
- Outcome
- root yield, sugar yield and WUEe0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- no mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Black polyethylene mulch significantly improved germination, growth, sucrose content, extractable sugar percentage, root yield, sugar yield and WUE compared to no mulch”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
Small machinery planting outperformed manual planting.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Treatment
- planting with small machinerye0
- Outcome
- outperformede0
- Direction
- outperformede0
- Comparator
- manual plantinge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“planting with small machinery outperformed manual planting”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
Gustav showed superior performance across seasons.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Material
- Gustave0
- Outcome
- superior performancee0
- Direction
- superiore0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Gustav and Halawa showed superior performance across seasons”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
Halawa showed superior performance across seasons.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Material
- Halawae0
- Outcome
- superior performancee0
- Direction
- superiore0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Gustav and Halawa showed superior performance across seasons”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
The first three PCA components explained 92.15% of total variation.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Outcome
- total variatione0
- Value
- 92.15%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“the first three components explained 92.15% of the total variation”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
PCA1 identified root yield and WUE for sugar yield as critical traits and accounted for 55.3% variation.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Outcome
- root yield and WUE for sugar yielde0
- Value
- 55.3%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“PCA1 (55.3% variation) identified root yield and WUE for sugar yield as critical traits”
t0“sugar beet”
Claim · model-written summary
PCA2 highlighted leaf area index and sugar yield and was reported with 88.56% variation.
- Taxon
- sugar beetBeta vulgaris subsp. vulgarist0
- Outcome
- leaf area index and sugar yielde0
- Value
- 88.56%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“PCA2 (88.56% variation) highlighted leaf area index and sugar yield”
t0“sugar beet”
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See all 5 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.