Effect of different irrigation water levels on yield and quality parameters of fodder beet

The study was carried out at Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Agricultural Research and Application Farm in 2021, with aim of determining the effect of different irrigation water levels on the yield and quality parameters of fodder beet by the experiment of randomized complete block design with three replications. The study used fodder beet of the Rota variety. Applied irrigation water amounts were determined according to Penman-Monteith method by considering the total reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) of ten days for five different ratios (S1: ETo×1.20, S2: ETo×0.90, S3: ETo×0.60, S4: ETo×0.30; S5: ETo×0.00). Drip irrigation method was used in experiment. The amount of irrigation water applied to the trial subjects ranged from 131.9 mm to 643.6 mm, and the crop water consumption (ET) ranged between 337.1 mm and 782 mm. According to the trial subjects, fresh leaf yield varied 570 – 1788.1 kg/da, fresh root yield varied 1865.7 – 7838.8 kg/da, total fresh yield varied 2435.8 – 9626.9 kg/da, leaf dry matter yield varied 134.1 – 255.5 kg/da, root dry mater varied 469.9 – 1247.6 kg/da, tuber length varied 12.2 cm – 25.4 cm, and tuber diameter varied 6.5 – 12.4 cm. The calculated yield response factor (ky) was 1.04. While the water use efficiency was 72.3 – 145.0 kg/ha/mm, the irrigation water use efficiency was 111.7 – 157.5 kg/ha/mm. The S2 trial subject was the most appropriate irrigation program under adequate irrigation water conditions. In terms of irrigation water deficit conditions, results indicated that there may apply irrigation water at 60% or 30% of reference evapotranspiration from the S3 or S4 irrigation program.