Beet is a biennial crop, and it takes two years to complete a growth cycle under natural conditions. In the first year, we mainly carried out vegetative growth, formed lush branches and leaves and fat straight roots, and accumulated a lot of sugar (mainly sucrose), protein and inorganic salts in the roots. The growth period is 170 ~ 180 d, from vegetative growth to reproductive growth in the second year, after low temperature vernalization, sunshine, bolting, flowering and fruiting, the growth period is1/kloc-0 ~120 d. If the necessary conditions for the growth and development of sugar beet are artificially created, sugar beet can blossom and bear fruit in the year of sowing, and it can reproduce 1 generation or even 3-5 generations a year, and the shortest time from sowing to seed maturity is 50-60 days.

China is a vast country with a large temperature difference between north and south. In northern China, such as Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi and other provinces (autonomous regions), sugar beet is the main planting area, and it is cold in winter. The root tuber (mother root) for seed storage needs to be harvested in autumn, stored in the cellar for wintering, transplanted to the field in the next year, and then blossomed and borne fruit. In some southern provinces, the ground temperature is generally 0 ~-5℃ in winter, and occasionally the extreme minimum temperature is lower than-10℃ for a short time. Under the condition of covering, sowing in autumn, overwintering in the open air, flowering and fruiting in the second year.

According to the growth and development law of sugar beet, its growth period can be divided into two stages: vegetative growth period and reproductive growth period. The vegetative growth period can be divided into seedling stage, leaf stage, root sugar growth stage and sugar accumulation stage. The reproductive growth period can be divided into leaf stage, bolting stage, flowering stage and seed formation stage.

The transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth of sugar beet must first go through a suitable low temperature period, that is, vernalization stage. This stage can be performed before or at the same time as the photoperiod.

Different varieties have different requirements for the duration and temperature level of low temperature effect. Generally, vernalization can be felt at -2℃ to 10℃, and the condition of 3 ~ 5℃ is favorable for vernalization, and the vernalization period is not less than 30 days. Therefore, the cellar temperature for storing mother roots in winter is 1 ~ 3℃. Except the mother root, germinated seeds and plants can pass vernalization at suitable temperature, and germinated seeds can pass vernalization at 3 ~ 5℃ for 50 ~ 60 days. The vernalization of seed plants needs a high temperature, with an average of 13 ~ 15℃, and it is appropriate to have16 hours of light every day.

Beet is a long-day crop, which needs a long photoperiod in the light stage. Under the condition of sufficient water and nutrients, it takes more than 20 days of long sunshine with daily illumination time of 12 ~ 14h to get through the illumination stage.

The type sensitive to temperature and light is easy to bolting and blossom in vegetative growth period, which is called "bolting plant of the year". The growth and development of this plant in the field are affected, with small root body, high degree of fibrosis and sharply reduced sugar content. The types insensitive to light and temperature are the opposite, and some rarely bolting even in the early spring with low temperature in vegetative growth period or in the early spring with long sunshine in high latitudes.

During the reproductive period, when the temperature, light and other conditions can't meet the requirements of its growth and development, it may also happen that it can't bolt, blossom and bear fruit. Such plants are called "ineffective plants". It can be divided into two categories: one is "stubborn plants", which keep growing leaves and roots in the ground, but do not bolting; The other is that after bolting, the main stem is stout and developed, with few branches, no flower organs are formed, only bolting and no fruit. Generally speaking, plants that have not gone through vernalization stage cannot bolting; Although they went through vernalization stage, they didn't complete the illumination stage, so they could only bolt, but could not differentiate flower buds, and eventually formed sterile plants.

Due to the long-term influence of environmental conditions, natural selection and ecological adaptation in different regions, the life history of different beet species and subspecies is different, including annual, biennial and perennial, and even within the same group of cultivated beet subspecies, the life history is not the same everywhere. For example, leaf beets grown in Yibin, Bijie, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places in Sichuan are biennial locally. Sowing in the field from August to 10 in the first year will blossom and bear fruit from May to June in the second year, while sowing the same seeds in spring (April to May) in Heilongjiang Province will blossom and bear fruit from July to August in that year.