Or sugar beet, sugar radish.

The cultivated variety of Beta vulgaris, one of the most important vegetables in the Chenopodiaceae family. There are four types: 1. vegetable beet (beetroot) used as a vegetable; 2. sugar beet (sugar beet) used for sugar production; 3. fodder beet used as a juicy fodder for livestock; and 4. leafy beet (swiss chard) used for food or as a seasoning.

Vegetable beets produce a thick, fleshy taproot in the first year of planting and are edible. In the second year, it grows a tall, well-branched stem and produces small, green, clustered flowers; the fruit is brown and cork-like, commonly known as "seedpods". The taproot is flat and globular, globular, conical to long conical, and the flesh is generally dark red to deep purplish-red, with some almost white, which becomes uniform in color when cooked. Vegetable beets are commonly cooked or pickled in the United States, and Russian beet gumbo is a traditional beet soup of Eastern Europe. Sugar beets are the most important commercial type, having been bred in Germany in the 18th century. Britain had blockaded France, so that it could not import sugar, as a countermeasure, Napoleon encouraged the cultivation of sugar beets, and since then sugar beets have been widely planted in Europe. Now beet sugar accounts for about 2/5 of the world sugar production, the main producing countries are Ukraine, Russia, the United States, France, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom. Cultivation of fodder beets and leafy beets began in prehistoric times, as with most crops.

Sugar beets grow well on deep, loose soils rich in organic matter; both chemical and manure fertilizers are effective. Irrigation is commonly practiced, and it can tolerate soils with high saline and alkaline content, but is sensitive to strongly acidic soils and low boron. Boron deficiency inhibits growth and causes black heart disease in the roots. Sugar beets are widely grown in temperate and cool-temperate regions, and in cooler seasons in warmer regions. In suitable climates, the growing season is 8?6?510 weeks for vegetable beets and up to 30 weeks for some forage beets. Beet leaves are a source of riboflavin, iron, and vitamins A and C. Cook them more often. Pick them fresh and tender. Beet is often canned (whole or sliced), pickled with spices, or soaked in sweet and sour sauce.

Beet (Beta) beet is a biennial herb, the ancient name for joining vegetable, belongs to the quinoa family (Familia Chenopodiaceae) beet genus (Genus Beta). It is one of the main sugar crops in China. The first year of life is mainly nutritive growth, accumulating rich nutrients in the fertile roots, and the second year is dominated by reproductive growth, pumping out flowering branches to form seeds through heterogamous pollination.

Sugar beet originated in the Mediterranean coast, wild species of coastal beet is the ancestor of cultivated sugar beet. It was introduced to China from Arab countries about 1500 years ago. In China, leaf sugar beet has a long history of cultivation, while sugar beet was introduced only in 1906. The main producing areas of sugar beet in China are in northeast, northwest and north China.

[edit]Types and uses of sugar beet

There are four cultivated varieties of sugar beet: sugar beet, leaf beet, root beet, and forage beet. Sugar beet is a biennial crop used as a raw material for sugar production. Sugar beet is full of treasures. The main product of sugar beet is sugar. Sugar is an indispensable nutrient for people's life, and it is also an important raw material for food industry, beverage industry and pharmaceutical industry. In addition to the production of cane sugar, sugar beet and its by-products have a wide range of prospects for development and utilization.

1. Utilization of beet stems and leaves

Beet stems and leaves are ideal juicy green feed, in addition to containing general nutrients needed by livestock, but also rich in carotene, can supplement the feed in the lack of a kind of vitamins, to increase the content of a kind of vitamins in its dairy products. Its nutritional composition is shown in Table 14-2. beet stems and leaves can also be used as fertilizer to return to the field, fertilization, increase the organic matter content in the soil.

2. Utilization of beetroot

Sugar beet root water accounted for 75%, 25% of the solids. Sucrose in the solids accounted for 16% to 18%, non-sugar substances accounted for 7% to 9%. Non-sugar substances are divided into soluble and insoluble two kinds: insoluble non-sugar is mainly cellulose, hemicellulose, proto-fruit gums and proteins; soluble non-sugar is divided into inorganic non-sugar and organic non-sugar. Inorganic non-sugar is mainly potassium, sodium, magnesium and other salts; organic non-sugar can be subdivided into nitrogen and nitrogen-free. Nitrogen-free non-sugars are fats, gliads, reducing sugars and organic acids; nitrogen-containing non-sugars are subdivided into proteins and non-proteins. Non-protein non-sugar mainly refers to betaine, amide and amino acids. Sugar beet industrial by-products are mainly about 3.5% of the sugar and 7.5% of the non-sugar substances within the tuber and other non-sugar substances input and output in the process.

Flower and edible fleshy roots of Beta vulgaris hand drawing ① sugar beet meal. In the sugar production process, sugar beet tubers are shredded and extracted, and then the residue left over is processed into sugar beet meal. Usually every 1 ton of sugar beet tubers processed at the same time to produce 0.9 tons of sugar beet meal. Sugar beet meal contains 93% water and about 7% dry matter. The dry matter is rich in various types of amino acids, vitamins and trace elements, and is an ideal feed for raising pigs and cattle. Its content is shown in Table 14-3. beet meal is pressed by double screw (or single screw) press and then dried to make dry beet.

Dry meal. Because of the high carbohydrate content, starch value and total digestible nutrients of dried beet meal, it can be used as concentrate feed. And because of less protein, high calorie, and high protein concentrate feed and roughage used together can regulate the high protein nutritional balance, its taste is sweet, is the ideal feed cattle industry. Use should be soaked in water first, otherwise it is easy to cause livestock bloat. In order to improve the nutritional value of dried beet meal, you can add waste molasses and other nutrients in the dry meal, made of molasses-type or nutritious beet granular meal. Sugar beet pellet meal is the use of dry sugar beet meal is further processed and made. Its nutrient composition and use of value and dry sugar beet meal, but more convenient packaging and transportation and management. Since the 1980s, China's production of sugar beet meal has developed rapidly, and the annual output has reached more than 10 million tons. At present, most of the domestic sugar beet factory with sugar beet grain meal production line.