Effect of Gamma Rays on the Sprouting of Stored Mangolds

Abstract

GAMMA radiation, which has previously been shown to prevent sprouting in potatoes¹, onions² and carrots³, has now been found to prevent the sprouting of stored mangolds (Beta vulgaris). Recently harvested mangolds of the variety Orange Globe, from which the leaves had been removed leaving 2 in. of leaf-stalk, were irradiated in batches of five with a cobalt-60 source giving a dose-rate of 100 rads per min. After treatment on November 7, 1956, the mangolds were bedded in damp sand in an unheated building. On April 8, 1957, the mean lengths of the sprouts were 5.7, 3.2, 1.5, 0.0, 0.0 and 0.0 in. on the batches given 0, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 rads, respectively. Some of the aphid species that transmit viruses of sugar beet and mangold crops survive through the winter in clamps and multiply in the spring on the developing sprouts of mangolds⁴. This experiment was part of a programme of research to find a method of preventing the aphid vectors from over-wintering in this way.