Holly Hybrids, Spreckels and SESVanderhave strive to provide the best possible sugarbeet seed varieties for your growing regions.

Quarterly Seed Crop Report Winter - January 2008

Holly Hybrids has two types of plantings in Oregon: direct seed and transplanted.

The direct seed crop is planted from mid August through the first week of September. Our objective is to have plants with a good tap root and canopy before going into winter. Besides cold temperatures the seed crop can also incur damage from flooding, geese activity, and deer activity. For these reasons, the direct seed crop is planted at four to six plants per foot so there will be plants remaining after a harsh winter.

Around the first week of November temperatures start cooling down with the shorter daylight hours. These cooler temperatures will last through mid February in the Salem area. January usually is the coldest month when temperatures can drop to the mid teens. Some years the temperature will drop to the single digits but this is very unusual. This year has been the coldest January on record for a long time. Plant growth slows down during the winter but never goes completely dormant.

Depending on the temperatures and soil moisture, transplanting will start slowly right after the fifth of January. We would like to see all transplants completed by mid March with February being the busiest month for transplanting. Plants (stecks) are planted in mid August in an outside steck nursery in the Salem area. This gives plants ample time to develop a good size root, about the size of your thumb. Plants are transplanted approximately 15 inches apart with a transplanter by West Coast Beet Seed Company personnel.

For more details on the commercial production process, visit the Life Cycle section of Agronomy.