As you most likely know, variable rate (VR) planting is becoming a fairly standard practice in the production of corn. In VR corn planting, you want to treat the better ground with more seed & poor ground with lower seeding rates.   

American Crystal Sugar Company has done several years of trials on Variable Rate Planting of sugarbeets and has come to a general conclusion that it is advantageous to plant lower populations in the best producing ground and higher populations in the poor producing ground. This concept follows the results that have been found in soybeans and, to some extents, what people have been finding in wheat.  

Below are a few comments from my knowledge and experience in sugarbeets. These are very general comments so take them with a grain of salt.  Also, keep in mind if you have good uniform ground VR planting is NOT necessarily going to be a good fit. VR sugarbeet populations will shine on the more variable fields that have water issues and tight soils. So here are some general concepts.  

GREEN ZONES – This is your “better” ground in the field,  and will respond better to “slightly lower” populations than normal. Typically plan on losing 5{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} at emergence and another 5{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} throughout the growing season. Great soil health, typically higher Organic Matter, better mineralization throughout the season.  

YELLOW ZONES – This is your “average” ground in the field, seem to respond well to “normal” populations. Typically plan on losing 5{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} to 10{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} at emergence and another 5{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} to 10{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} throughout the growing season. These areas of the field would represent more of a field / farm average production ground.  

RED ZONES – This is your “poorer” ground in the field, seem to respond well to “higher” populations. Typically plan on losing 10{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} or more at emergence and another 10{b4c4b3c31b85440e5ca5306e00628c0f48be4a5135888c167a359bacb50b7c0d} or more throughout the growing season. These zones are typically low wetter areas of the field with poor soil structure, lower organic matter and typically higher disease pressure. 


Please take a look at the seeding chart below, I have “Bolded” some seeding rates that I generally suggest.

<strong “fp_opennewwindow(‘600’,=”” ‘600’,=”” false,=”” true,=”” ”,=”” *href*=”” ‘gk_sugarbeet_seed_spacing_chart.pdf’);=”” fp_gotourl(=”” ‘gk_sugarbeet_seed_spacing_chart.pdf’)”=””>GK Sugarbeet Seed Spacing Chart.pdf

 If you have questions or would like to look at doing some VRT work on your fields, please drop me a line. My contact information is on the ‘contact’ page.