Removing the top flower is called “topping”. “Suckering” occurs if 1. You wait too late to top or 2. You wait too long after topping to cut. Suckers are secondary buds.
Newbie needs some tips on growing.
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Yes, you can put them in small pots or trays at this point and then transplant them into the buckets when they are 6-8” tall.
ChinaVoodoo
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I see why you say suckers are secondary buds, but they are more like secondary stems which will eventually bud. They start with leaves and stem, first, before producing new flowers.
The more mature a plant is, the more suckers it will produce, so when you say "wait too long", it makes sense. However, what I usually experience is that topping initiates suckering. It is the plant's response to its first fertile body being removed—presumably eaten by an ungulate or bovine—in order to ensure that it produces seed before the end of the growing season.
ChinaVoodoo
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But, are you saying that if you top early, with a lower leaf count, that you will not get suckers?
No, we never topped until it bloomed of course, but suckers could be present at the time you top assuming some plants have developed faster. We removed the suckers if they were present and then sprayed them to prevent them from re-emerging. If you don’t spray to kill the suckers and can’t harvest quickly you’ll have more suckers which detract from the overall plant quality. With some plants depending on what you were growing for could be topped early to boost the leaf growth but you’ll still have to contend with suckers unless you treat for them. If you’re only growing a small amount it doesn’t matter much because you should have the time to devote to their care. When you’re raising acres of it though, you don’t have the time to devote to a single plant.
skychaser
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I don't top plants until about 2-3 weeks before harvest. I don'tremove the suckers until topping, unless they have become excessively large. A plants main goal in life is to reproduce. Removing the top too soon causes them to put their energy into trying to grow secondary flowering branches. (suckers) If you remove suckers when they are just sprouting, the plant will try to regrow them and often throw out ground suckers from the base.
ChinaVoodoo
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Both of you are giving me the impression that I'm doing things the hard way.
I also grow another member of the nightshade family. I’ve never tried it with tobacco but this other stuff, if you top it after the fourth set of leaves, it forms two new offshoots, that can be repeated. I’m not sure it would work for tobacco although I have seen an occasional plant split off. Why I don’t know. For small producers this might be an option to increase leaves per plant, although they may be a bit smaller.
I've even seen spruce trees do that, I'm pretty sure most all plants do it. You can make a plant very bushy that way. From what I gather about tobacco, we're trying to focus the plant's available resources into the leaves it has, for more flavour, I don't believe more leaves on one plant is a common goal. Could be wrong.
ChinaVoodoo
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I take advantage of suckering whenever there is early flowering. I top the plant and let the uppermost sucker take its place as a new main stalk. I usually get about six more leaves out of the deal.
skychaser
Well-Known Member
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For the majority of my plants, the end goal is to get good quality seed in as large of an amount as possible. Sometimes I will leave the top two biggest suckers and let them flower. Then I can bend them up and stuff them all into one flower bag with the main flower head. And I have found that I can plant two plants together and put both flower heads into one bag. The leaf is definitely smaller when crowding them like this, but I can double the seed I get from the same amount of row space and cut down on the number of bags needed. Bagging plants can be fun too. Unless you have 1000's of them to do. And they all need readjusting 2-3 times as they grow.
lol When you have a few dozen, or even a hundred plants, it's not a big deal. You have the time to fuss over them and it is even kind of fun. But when you have 1000's of them, the fun is quickly gone. And you have to manage your time for the biggest return.
For the majority of my plants, the end goal is to get good quality seed in as large of an amount as possible. Sometimes I will leave the top two biggest suckers and let them flower. Then I can bend them up and stuff them all into one flower bag with the main flower head. And I have found that I can plant two plants together and put both flower heads into one bag. The leaf is definitely smaller when crowding them like this, but I can double the seed I get from the same amount of row space and cut down on the number of bags needed. Bagging plants can be fun too. Unless you have 1000's of them to do. And they all need readjusting 2-3 times as they grow.
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More tobacco leaves is the whole goal
if you are limited to growing just a few plants and you can force that plant to increase its leaf production by 1.5-3x in long season strains you have more leaf to smoke and don’t sacrifice on quality.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I think in Canada that it would be pointless to rely on suckers for added weight because they are never as mature come frost time as they should be and we would end up with a lot of crappy low quality leaf, and smaller leaves of the higher quality primings.
koceff
Well-Known Member
Exactly, the only foreseeable way to do it that far north is if you were growing them inside. I might try a few plants of the 60-70 day strains and see what they actually do. As I said I know I’ve seen plants split off but I can’t remember how they did as far as leaf size or quality.
ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
It's normal:
Cotyledon - Wikipedia
The cotyledons may be ephemeral, lasting only days after emergence, or persistent, enduring at least a year on the plant. The cotyledons contain (or in the case of gymnosperms and monocotyledons, have access to) the stored food reserves of the seed. As these reserves are used up, the cotyledons may turn green and begin photosynthesis, or may wither as the first true leaves take over food production for the seedling.[3]
They always lose those starter leaves. No worries, now the second looks like something might have taken a bite unless it’s just trauma from handling.
If the leaves were in my 1020 cells it would be time to give the leaves a haircut. In the cells it keeps the leaves from shading each other. It also induces a defense mechanism as the plant thinks it is being attacked and the plant will thicken its stalks, strengthen the roots, and increase nicotine. It may also increase plant growth because it seems like a few days after a haircut it is time to do it again.
Here is a post by Deluxestogie with before and after haircut photos. I remove anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 of the leaf. It seems extreme but I’ve not had any problems. I use regular scissors.
Deluxestogie Grow Log 2019
After a healthier, lower calorie, lower fat supper [the pancakes had little square dents filled with air all over them, and the 4 slices of bacon were only half-slices], I decided the time had come to instruct my tabaquitos in basic manners. "Nice plants don't shade their neighbors." I'm...
Another question I might ask is if the cups have drainage holes in the bottom and are you watering from the bottom? Preferably they would be watered from the bottom and the soil would wick up the proper amount of moisture. Watering from the top can cause soil compaction, spiral root, and possibly contribute to damping off. I notice mold on the soil which may indicate too much moisture if others conditions are present or not met.
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More tobacco leaves is the whole goal
I‘m not disagreeing necessarily, but tobacco is sold by the pound, not by leaf count. I guess it would depend on whether or not the two were mutually exclusive and the end result of the product. Cigarettes, filler, binder, or wrapper. Big leaf should fetch a premium, smaller sucker leaf would fetch less.
Or are we talking about a second crop after the first big leaf has harvested and let a lone lower sucker start a new stalk?
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