Sugar Beet

Sugar Beet, common name for a cultivar of the table beet (see Beet), of the goosefoot family, important as the source of about two-fifths of the world supply of sugar. The sugar beet flourishes on a rich, deep, loamy soil in a climate having a mean temperature of about 21° C (about 70° F) during the growing season. The rotation of the crop with other crops is carefully planned, and the proper fertilization of the fields has been a subject of much study. In commercial beet seed production, beets with about 15 percent sugar are selected, placed in pits during the winter, and set out again in the spring to produce the seed crop. In the United States, California leads in production of beet sugar. Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, and Montana are other important producers of the sugar.

Scientific classification: The sugar beet belongs to the family Chenopodiaceae. It is classified as Beta vulgaris, Crassa Group.