leaf weight, and how to increase, it

[Chicken]

once again, my leaf is paper thin, and weighs nothing,

ive seen some full, heavy leaf, but my burley , the leaf i'd think would be the thickest and heaviest, is nothing compared to the burley ive seen grown by others,

is it the fertilizer,?

more water,????

next year, im doing a soil anallysis, and having a special mix of fertilizer made up.

and we will see if i can get the weight up<

 

[johnlee1933]

I'll defer to the experts but doesn't water weight have a lot to do with it?

John

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Leaf weight is controlled somewhat by Nitrogen and Potassium levels but it is also a function of sun and days after harvest. Burley achieves it's heaviest leaf approximately 5 weeks after topping.
Randy B

 

[Rayshields]

Chicken, my guess it is sun power. I read someplace that southern tobacco yields less pounds than more northern, and it appears to grow taller as well.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

The more sun the thicker the leaf. This is a normal response of the leaf to the stress of the sun, that's why shade tobacco leaf is thinner. Its getting less sun. The cultivar plays a role too. Virginia tobaccos are a lot thinner than Burleys.

 

[BigBonner]

Wet rainy weather will cause tobacco to weigh lesser lbs acre ,tobacco in a dry year will weigh more per acre . 400 to 800 pounds per acre more in a dry year .Too dry any it will be less pounds .
Its a gamble and at the end of your growing season what you have is what you get .

The only thing is to fertilize it right , top at the right time and wait 3 weeks on burley . Each week left topped will increase 200 to 400 pounds per acre after topping until around the 4th week then the tobacco will star loosing pounds .If leaves start drying up on the bottom , the leaves on top will make up for it by spreading and thickening.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Wet rainy weather will cause tobacco to weigh lesser lbs acre

This is why the Univ of Kentucky and others recommended to side dress with additional Nitrogen during a wet season.

 

[BigBonner]

This is why the Univ of Kentucky and others recommended to side dress with additional Nitrogen during a wet season.

It won't do as good as they say .tobacco will still be mostly water and dries up light.
One more thing if its rainy we can't get in the fields to side dress the tobacco .
Im trying to clutivate tobacco now where the fields are just dry enough for cultivating and the tobacco has gotten almost to big to run the tractor through. It is thundering outside now and I have 9 more acres that I won't be able to cultivate the weeds out of it because it will be too big to get the tractor through.
My tobacco has really taken off since the hot dry spell we had .

 

[dkh2]

This is why the Univ of Kentucky and others recommended to side dress with additional Nitrogen during a wet season.

That's what I did this year added more nitrogen because it was raining so much
I figured all the nitrogen was all leeched out and that was May 29th.
My Virginia Brightleaf began to bud last week so Friday I topped all of them.
My Burley Mammoth hasn't started to bud yet and there getting TALL as hell.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

This year I added about 2" horse manure a few weeks before planting.tilled it in then planted the baccy. It wont get a lick else of anything, I don't want to baby it. I go in there every couple weeks to weed and rip off suckers but otherwise just let it do its thing.

It looks good enough to eat now too! But I won't, not even the deer are that dumb lol

 

[Chicken]

well. i guess,

my tropical climate, and rain, rain, rain,

is my downfall.

as far as nitrogen goes, i till chicken-poop, in each year.

but next year, im gonna do the strictlly fertilizer thing,