HARVEST SEASON WELL UNDER WAY FOR FLUE-CURED

You saw a lot of this in eastern N.C. in July: A farmer knocks trashy bottom leaves off his flue-cured using a mechanical delugger during the hot, dry spell in July. "In a year like this one, it was a good tool to have," says Bryant Lancaster of Lancaster Farms near Stantonsburg, N. C. "It eliminates a good portion of trashy lower leaves that we had because of the bad weather." But since this picture was taken on July 17, Lancaster's farm has gotten considerable rain. Harvest is going on at full speed in Florida and Georgia, although farmers are having to work around showers, says J. Michael Moore, Georgia Extension tobacco specialist. Floridians may be finished by the end of next week. Georgians aren't that far along, although Moore says that harvest of the crop at the research station in Tifton should be finished next Wednesday. The availability of labor has been a major problem for Georgia-Florida tobacco this year, he says. How far has harvest gotten in the flue-cured states? According to the USDA agency National Agricultural Statistics Service, through July 29: Georgia farmers had harvested 54 percent of its crop; South Carolina, 21 percent, North Carolina (flue), 17 percent harvested, and Virginia (flue), 11 percent. No burley had been harvested by that date, NASS said, but Kentucky growers have topped 33 percent of their burley and Tennessee 50 percent. The marketing season got off to an encouraging start when U.S. Tobacco Cooperative began taking deliveries at its Georgia marketing center in Nashville last week. "All stalk positions were represented, and overall, the deliveries look pretty good.," says Moore. Recent rains have improved conditions in eastern North Carolina. "But there are isolated areas that have received too much rain, negatively affecting tobacco," says Don Nicholson, N.C. Department of Agriculture regional agronomist. North of Raleigh, Franklin County is finally receiving much-needed rains, says Charles Mitchell, Franklin County Extension agent. "But for some fields of tobacco, it is too late," he added. The certainties about burley marketing in 2018, according to Don Fowlkes, agronomy manager for the Burley Stabilization Corporation. "Red-leaf style burley tobacco is in  demand in the market-place. Quality is the key to having a product that buyers want. Yield is the key to being profitable, and both quality and yield are necessary for staying in business." When should you cut burley? Cutting early sacri-fices yield. Cutting late sacrifices quality and fre-quently yield. "In most years for most varieties, early means before three to four weeks after topping and late means more than five to seven weeks after," says Fowlkes. Five weeks is a reasonable average target. "Certainly, let most crops stand at least four weeks, Fowlkes says. The best dark tobacco crop since 2014? Despite a shortage of plants, the dark tobaccos of western Kentucky and Tennessee are looking very good right now, and a better than average yield seems quite possible, says Andy Bailey, Extension dark tobacco specialist. It has benefited by timely rains. About 70 percent of the crop has been topped as of the end of July. Some dark tobacco that is grown for cigar wrapper has been harvested, but for most other plantings, harvest is at least two weeks away. Dicamba problem in dark: At least 300 acres of dark have been contaminated by dicamba in fields close to dicamba-resistant soybeans. Bailey says this tobacco is unmarketable. He thinks the problem was not so much due to physical drift by the chemical but rather to temperature inversions from dicamba applica-tions made to soybeans in late June and July. A new foliar spray for target spot: According to California manufacture Marrone Bio, Stargus Biofungicide provides target spot control when applied at a rate of two to three quarts per acre, by itself or in a tank mix with Quadris. It is also registered for blue mold control, sprayed on at a rate of four quarts per acre as soon as symptoms appear. It has a short re-entry time of four hours and is approved for use on organic tobacco. DATES TO REMEMBER:  August 9, 5:30 p.m. Dark Tobacco Twilight Tour at the West Farm, Murray State University, in Murray, Ky. August 13, 1 p.m. The Kentucky Burley Tobacco Industry Tour will be held on August 13  and 14, starting at 1 p.m. on the 13th at the University of Kentucky Spindletop Research Farm in Lexington. On the 14th, the tour will return to Spindletop at 8 a.m. and travel to research and demonstration plots in Central Kentucky.