ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted to study the response of sugarbeet to soil applied boron 0 5 0 75 1 0 1 5 and 2 0 kg B ha 1 in loamy sand soil during Rabi season 2014 15 The experiment soil was low in organic carbon 0 36 hot water soluble boron 0 43 mg B kg 1 soil and available nitrogen 120 kg ha 1 medium in available potassium 212 8 kg ha 1 and phosphorus 18 7 kg ha 1 With increase in the rate of boron application upto 2 kg B ha 1 a significant and progressive increase in available boron in soil was noticed which resulted in improved boron content in root and foliage of the sugarbeet crop A curvilinear relationship between different rates of boron appliedand root yield foliage yield and sugar content yield indicated that application of 1 0 kg B ha 1 was adequate to get optimum yield and resulted in increase in the root yield 5 0 foliage yield 27 0 and sugar content 8 0 over the control The agronomic efficiency was increased with boron application upto 1 0 kg B ha 1 beyond this level a decline in agronomic efficiency was recorded Keywords Boron Loamy sand soil Sugarbeet Sugar content INTRODUCTION Boron B is a vital micronutrient required for normal growth and development of plants It is a very sensitive element and plants differ widely in their requirement the range of deficiency and toxicity level are narrow Boron deficiency in crop plants is widespread throughout the world Goldberg et al 1993 Intensive cropping improved crop varieties with high crop productivity have caused depletion of plants nutrients more so that of micronutrients
