Investigation of rhizomania tolerance in some Yugoslav sugar beet hybrids

Some new sugar beet experimental hybrids, 'Al-H-4R', 'Al-H-5R', 'Al-H-6R', 'Al-H-7R', 'Al-H-961R', 'Al-H-962R' bred at Sugar Beet Breeding Station ''Selekcija'', Aleksinac, Yugoslavia, and 'AlNS-H-1R' bred in collaboration with the Institute for Field Crops and Vegetables, Division for Sugar Beet, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, showed field tolerance rhizomania. The tolerance of some of the tested hybrids ('Al-H-7R', 'Al-H-961R', 'Al-H-5R') was significantly very high. With most tested criteria, all investigated hybrids obtained better results than four sugar beet genotypes (KW 'Gabriela', KW 'Lena', 'Dona' and 'Alvita') known as tolerant to rhizomania. The yield of white sugar in six out of seven investigated hybrids was higher than the yield of white sugar in KW 'Gabriela', a well known cultivar with high tolerance to rhizomania.