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Primitive Varieties

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DonH

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My understanding is that they are the older varieties and haven't been bred or cross bred or hybridized. So they can be used for anything. Orinoco for example is the origin of Virginia Flue Cured varieties, so it could be flue cured.
 

deluxestogie

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"Primitive" is the waste basket category used by ARS-GRIN to indicate that an accession appeared to the evaluator to show little indication of intentional agricultural improvement. I suspect that means simply that those varieties did not seem to resemble any of the high-yielding, prettier commercially developed varieties. Many "primitives" are shorter, have smaller leaves and lower leaf count. They may or may not have higher than typical nicotine levels.

They certainly should not be dismissed as somehow less worthwhile than non-primitives. Some possess traits (e.g. disease resistance) that had been bred out of commercial strains. Many appear to be Orinoco types, and should be interesting for various uses.

Another twist is that the class assignment may be simply incorrect. As an example, ARS-GRIN has 4 accessions (at least) of Guácharo. One is misspelled (Guarcharo) and classed as primitive. One is classed as flue-cured, and two are classed as cigar filler.

So, I would take the judgmental term of "primitive" with a grain of salt.

Bob
 

NRustica

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I asked this question of the GRIN awhile back. This was the response:
Hello Rev. Williams,

Primitive is the classification given to certain tobacco varities
that are generally low in height, flowers early, has lots of
suckers, and small narrow leaves. To my knowledge they are in
their original form as found. There has not been cross-breeding
to improve them for commericial sale, as compaired to say
Flue Cured Varities. I hope this answers your question. If
you need more answers or questions, please let me know.

Best regards,

Ted etwoodli@unity.ncsu.edu
 
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