Assessment of water stress effects on red beet under the Mediterranean conditions

Although there are numerous scientific data on the response of various plants to water stress, there are few studies on red beet in the literature, and non-specifically under the Mediterranean conditions. This study aimed to investigate the effects of water stress (WS) levels (control-WS0, low-WS20, medium-WS40, high-WS60, and extreme-WS80) on water use, growth, yield parameters, and yield response factor of red beet (Beta vulgaris) in Mediterranean conditions. During the growing season, the highest daily evapotranspiration values were 3.7, 2.8, 2.1, 1.4, and 0.7 mm for the control treatment, low, medium, high, and extreme water stresses, respectively. Soil salinity, plant height, fresh leaf yield, and storage-root yield values were decreased as water stress increased. However, there were no significant differences in soil pH, taproot length, and plant water use efficiency between treatments. Significantly important strong- or moderate-positive linear correlations were observed between soil salinity, evapotranspiration, plant height, fresh leaf yield, and storage-root yield values. The yield response factors for red beet storage-root and fresh leaf yields were found to be 0.88 and 0.98, respectively. The results revealed that red beet is slightly tolerant to water stress, with comparatively lower storage-root and fresh leaf yield reductions under the reduced evapotranspiration caused by water stress.