A picture tells a thousand words

[ladaok]

been a little while since ..... but i've been busy growing 48 different varieties, and netting out flower heads to gain pure seed

now about the picture (s) .... was cruising through a library book on the history of CUBA. .... anyway, there were a few pictures on sugar cane and tobacco fields

1st thing I notice about the tobacco fields, is how stumpy looking their cigar varieties are, I doubt that the plants were more than 2 1/2 to 3 foot high ?
next thing, is how even in size all the leaves are on the stems, and there don't seem to be any on or very close to the ground, and now something really weird, is, for the size of the leaves on each plant, you would certainly expect to see flower heads starting to form ?
AH, I think I see what's happened

Another couple of photos shows the grower trundling off with picked leaves on poles, but what's noticeable is that the leaves are still well and truly green with only the occasional darkish yellow one amongst them ?

interesting or not ?

robbie

 

[DGBAMA]

What you are seeing is the plants a few weeks after topping. Trash leaf has already been pulled from the bottom and the plants have been topped not just below the flower, but at a specific number of leaves above the ground.

For example, xxx variety should have 16 harvestable leaves, everything above that is removed by topping. Optimizing yield of marketable leaf on a commercial scale.

It is much easier to top all plants at xxxx### of leaves at the same time than to top each plant as it comes into bloom.

 

[DGBAMA]

Due to smaller scale, we home growers have the luxury of being able to top each plant on its own schedule.

 

[ladaok]

Trash leaf has already been pulled from the bottom.... so how many leaves from the bottom are trash ? is it anything that touches the soil or .....

robbie

 

[DGBAMA]

Trash leaf has already been pulled from the bottom.... so how many leaves from the bottom are trash ? is it anything that touches the soil or .....

robbie

Individual growing conditions tend to determine this. For me, 2-4 leaves seems about normal. Pretty much the ones that develop small and never look mature, and maybe a couple above them that get damaged by weather and rubbing on the ground.

 

[ladaok]

Ta ...

robbie