Two-Year Field Trial Assessing Overwinter Survival, Bolting, and Productivity of Autumn-Sown Sugar Beet Varieties at Northern Mediterranean Latitudes

Conventional spring sowing of sugar beet in Europe faces increasing constraints from summer drought, high temperatures, and Cercospora beticola pressure due to climate change. This two-year field trial (2021–2022 and 2022–2023) evaluated the feasibility of autumn-sown sugar beet at a northern Mediterranean site in Legnaro (Padua, NE Italy, 45°21′ N). Nine varieties were assessed across four sowing dates in 2021 (late September to early November) and two sowing dates in 2022 (late September and late October). Measurements included overwinter survival, bolting incidence at two reproductive stages, fresh root and above-ground biomass yield at sequential harvest dates, and root soluble solids (°Brix). Post-winter mortality was negligible following September and early-October sowings, moderate after late-October sowings (17.3% in 2021; 13.2% in 2022), and extremely high after early-November sowing (81.5%). These patterns indicated that winter survival was more strongly determined by crop developmental stage before winter than by seasonal minimal temperatures recorded in two seasons (−3.6 °C and −6.3 °C, respectively). Bolting incidence showed the opposite trend, reaching near-complete or complete expression in the earliest sowings regardless of variety choice. In late-October sowings, clear varietal differences emerged. Some varieties combined low bolting incidence with high root yields, reaching 81.1–84.4 t ha⁻¹ at the final harvest (early August 2023). Root juice soluble solids were higher in the drier 2021–2022 season (exceeding 20 °Brix in several cases) than in the wetter 2022–2023 season (consistently below 17.5 °Brix), reflecting dilution effects associated with the different seasonal precipitation. In the sequential harvest series of late-October 2022 sowing, later harvest dates were generally associated with lower soluble solids. These results indicate that, within the autumn sowing window evaluated, late-October sowing combined with appropriate varietal selection provided the best balance between overwinter survival, bolting incidence, and root yield at this northern Mediterranean latitude. Future multi-site studies, including spring-sown controls, could enable direct comparison with conventional sowing practice.