Tuber and root crops are relatively insensitive to moderate drought stress for short intervals throughout the entire crop growing season. Crops like potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa and pasture, quickly recover from short stress periods with little reduction in yields. So Bauder syas seed crop managers with limited irrigation water could consider reducing early-season irrigations but ensuring minimum stress conditions between seed development and maturity. Sugar beets are quite drought tolerant. They can withstand extended periods without rainfall or irrigation by using water stored in the soil.
Limited water can even increase sucrose production efficiency.
Sucrose yield per unit of water use can be increased above that where maximum water use is allowed, simply by cutting off irrigations three to four weeks before harvest. Early growth stages are the most critical for sugar beets, after which they are only moderately sensitive to plant stress. Afternoon leaf wilting during hot, dry, windy conditions has negligible effects on total sugar production. Water can be used more efficiently on sugar beets by applying one last major irrigation to recharge the entire soil profile at the onset of the major stress period. This is about the first of August.