| The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of plastic film mulching and drip irrigation amount on the growth and development of sugar beet during the growing period of leaf cluster. In the Anning Canal Experimental Base of Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the beet variety ‘Beta379’was used as experimental material. In the split plot design, the main plot was divided into three types of film mulching, namely, no film mulching (N), single film mulching (T) and double film mulching (D), and the secondary plot was divided into three types of irrigation, which were 5 700 m3·hm-2(W1), 4 200 m3·hm-2(W2) and 2 700 m3·hm-2(W3), respectively. The growth index, including leaf area, root circumference, cluster height and leaf number, as well as biomass accumulation, distribution and photosynthetic characteristics of sugar beet functional leaves (fourth leaf from bottom) at the growth period of foliage were measured. The results showed that the growth and development, photosynthetic characteristics and dry matter accumulation of sugar beet were affected by different mulching methods and different irrigation amounts. There was no significant difference between 4 500 m3·hm-2 treatment with double mulching and 5 700 m3·hm-2 with double mulching and 5 700 m3·hm-2 with single mulching, but it was 12.65%, 12.96%, 3.93% and 9.93% higher on average in leaf area, root girth, cluster height and single root weight than other treatments. At the same time, the dry matter accumulation of sugar beet was significantly increased by improving the photosynthesis of sugar beet, and the dry matter mass of stem and leaf was increased by 15.84% on average, and the dry matter mass of root was significantly increased by 14.72%, which laid a good foundation for the high yield of beet. |