Objective In order to explore the feasibility of degradation of degradation film instead of PE film under drip irrigation conditions in Xinjiang, we aim to investigate the sugar accumulation process during the nutritive growth period of sugar beet and the formation of tuberous root expansion in degradation film, PE film and bare ground sugar beet under drip irrigation conditions in Xinjiang, and study the influence of film covering on the change rule of the nutritive growth and fertility of sugar beet with a view to providing the theoretical basis for fertility control of sugar beet for high-yield and high-quality production.

Methods The number of green leaves, the number of dead leaves, the height of leaf tufts, the diameter and circumference of root tubers were determined every 7 days in the field after the inter-seedling period, and the fresh weight of leaf tufts, the length of stems and leaves, the fresh weight of root tubers, the degree of hammering and other indexes were measured in the field of the 5 consecutively non-deficient seedlings after the digging of the whole plant, the determination of the dry matter of leaf tufts and roots was carried out every 14 days, and the aboveground growth of the plant as well as the underground part of the changes were analyzed.

Results The sugar beet seedling growth 66 days after planting was as follows: PE film > degradable film > bare ground, 122 days after the sprout, tuber fresh weight performance was as follows: degradable film > bare ground > PE film, tuber sugar content rate throughout the whole growth period was: bare ground > degradable film > PE film. By the time of harvest, sugar beet sugar content rate was 13.78% under degradable film, a reduction of 0.36% compared with the bare ground; PE film sugar content rate was 11.16%, a reduction of 19.03% compared with the bare ground, and the yield showed an increase of 3.40% under degradable film cover and 6.02% decrease under degradable film cover compared to bare ground. Sugar production increased by 3.02% under degradable film cover and decreased by 23.91% under PE film cover.

Conclusion The PE film cover has a greater impact on the growth of sugar beet in the early stage, and the advantage of bare ground was more obvious after the rapid growth period of leaf tufts, and the use of degradable film could effectively gather the advantages of both to significantly improve the yield and have a lesser impact on the sugar content rate.