Sugar beets responded to decreasing fall temperatures with an abrupt slowdown in both root and top growth but also with increases in the sucrose Concentration of roots, according to this test in northern 10s Angeles County. Plants that became deficient in nitrogen in mid-August produced roots as well as those kept supplied with nitrogen throughout the fall; and on December 5, roots of N-deficient plants contained 2.7 percentage points more sucrose than roots of high-nitrogen plants.