Do Magnetic Water Affect Water Use Efficiency, Quality and Yield of Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris L.) Plant under Arid Regions Conditions?

Regarding our previous and promising results, magnetic technology as a nontradihonal method may be used for improving crop productivity and water use efficiency under field condition. To achieve the aforementioned objective, two field trials using sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) (var. Baraca) were conducted at Research and Production Station, National Research Centre, Alemam Malek village, Al Nubaria District, Al Behaira Governorate, Egypt in 2009/10 and 2010/11 winter seasons. The experiments contained two treatments i.e., (1) Irrigation with normal water and (2) Irrigation with normal water after magnetization through a two inch Magnetron [U.T.3, Magnetic Technologies LLC PO Box 27559, Dubai, UAE]. The results showed significant positive effects of magnetic treatment of water on quantity and quality of the studied parameters. The percent of increase due to using magnetized water application reached to 21.22% fort root weight (kg), 5.72% for root length (cm), 16.22 for root diameter (cm), 19.05% for root yield (ton fed. super( -1)), 23.79% for sugar yield (ton fed. super( -1)). The increase was 4.04, 2.93, 7.57 and 3.41% for sugar (%), purity (%), recoverable sugar and quality index, respectively. Meanwhile, irrigation sugar beet with magnetized water reduced value of impurity parameters by 13.40, 12.37 and 16.63% for Na, K, Amino-N (mmol 100 g root fresh weight super( -1)), respectively compared to irrigation with normal water. Moreover, Water-Use Efficiency (WUE) increased as a result of irrigation by 19.05% compared to control treatment. It appears that utilization of magnetized water can lead to improve yield and quality of sugar beet crop and water use efficiency under newly reclaimed sand soil.