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A question on shade grown wrapper tobacco

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Ben Brand

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Iv`e decided to plant all my wrappers under 40% shade cloth next season, due to sun scorch I got this season, due to very high heat and dry conditions.
Do I fertilize the wrappers the same as my filler tobacco, I have very sandy soil and have to fertilize quite heavily to get a decent crop.

I will use thin rope to support the wrapper tobacco from the above, like the pros do.
I`m just not sure how to fertilize the shade grown wrappers. I give my sun grown wrappers and filler tobacco the same amount of fertilizers.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Ben, That's a tough call. I have never fertilized my shade grown wrappers but I have good soil. If your sun grown wrappers without fertilizer are small and spindly then I say go ahead and fertilize your shade grown. Keep in mind though that you want thin leaf not necessarily big leaf. What kind (NPK wise) of fertilizer do you presently use?
 

Ben Brand

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JBD haven`t worked out N P K proportions in years.

When I used to farm tobacco we put down a lot of fertilizers according to our soil analyses, about 270N 180P 100K if I can remember correctly. We are farming in basically "dead" sand, that`s why we used so much fertilizer. We had very decent crops, but the input costs were very high.

Now i just look at my plants and give fertilizer accordingly.
 

SmokesAhoy

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Do you have pictures of your grow? I don't have any ideas to help but I'd love to see the property and the soil you're on.

I don't know if it's financially feasible or if you have the rainfall to make it work but if there is any access to mulched trees from tree cutters or other yard waste inputs you could add to the sand you might be able to build up the field over time just by continuously adding more and more organic matter to it.
 
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