For a number of years NIR spectroscopy has acquired increasing importance,
in both beet and sugar production, for assessing raw material and process c
ontrol.
In a further extension of these applications, NIR could be used for evaluat
ing total nitrogen content in the leaves of growing beet. Previous investig
ations have emphasized the possibility of correlating the nitrogen content
in leaves with the available nitrogen content of the soil, Analysis of leaf
nitrogen status makes it possible to advise farmers whether use of fertili
zers would be worthwhile during growth of the plants. Such a practice shoul
d avoid problems due either to inadequate supply of nitrogen (poor developm
ent), or to oversupply (pollution and reduction in the beets' technical val
ue).
Experiments described here show that NIR spectroscopy could replace traditi
onal methods for determining leaf nitrogen contents. This would have two ma
jor advantages: the use of chemical reagents would be eliminated, and a gre
at deal of time would be saved - which is important given the large numbers
of samples that often have to be analyzed within a very limited time.