AN EVALUATION OF MACRONUTRIENT NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF SUGAR BEETS IN CRITICAL STAGES OF GROWTH IN RESPONSE TO FOLIAR APPLICATION OF MULTI-MICRONUTRIENT FERTILIZERS

The actual yields of sugar beets harvested by farmers in Poland are much below the yielding potential of currently cultivated varieties, even when grown on fertile soils. Defi-ciency of micronutrients can be considered as a factor which prohibits reaching a state of nutrient balance, especially in nitrogen, by a crop. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of foliar application of multi-microelement fertilizers on a sugar beet nutritional sta-tus in early stages of canopy growth and, in turn, on yields of taproots and recoverable sugar. For this purpose, in two growing seasons, 2005 and 2006, eight field trials were set up in the region of Wielkopolska on fertile soils originated from sandy loam. A simple expe-rimental design comprised three treatments: (1) control (a plot fertilized only with NPK), and (2) multi-microelement fertilizer composed of cations (Mi), (3) cations plus boron (MiB). It has been found that the applied micronutrient fertilizers had a significant effect, irre-spectively of the field location and seasonal yield variability, on the sugar beet nutritional status, especially in terms of nitrogen. Yields of taproots have increased by 31.6 % and 22.1% for the NPK+Mi and NPK+MiB treatments, respectively. Almost the same degree of incre