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Rapid Floral Expression by Sugarbeet Seedlings under Continuous Incandescent Lighting and Moderate Temperatures¹

Continuous incandescent lighting (25-35 µEm^-2 sec^-1) and moderate temperatures (20/14 C day/night) with 14 hour fluorescent lighting (350 to 550 µEm^-2 sec^-1) per day elicited flowering within 80 days in seedling populations of seven of eight sugarbeet lines tested in growth chamber experiments. The percentage of the plants that flowered ranged from 0 to 100 among lines. Shortest time to flower was 38 days. This method of rapid floral expression can lead to accelerated generation times for breeding purposes. It may also risk increasing the incidence of field bolting because of inadvertent selection for greater sensitivity to expressive factors unless conditions are optimized to permit flowering of the whole population.

Key Words: Bolting • Breeding • Flowering • Photoperiodism

² Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS, P.O. Box 1633, East Lansing, MI 48823.

Received for publication August 26, 1981.