Plants began going into the ground on March 25 on the farm of Stanley Corbett and his sons near Lake Park in south Georgia. It is very close to the Georgia-Florida boundary.
Transplanting began about two weeks ago in Florida and last week in Georgia, says J. Michael Moore, Georgia Extension tobacco specialist. But it is still on a small scale. “The work will get going in earnest the week after Easter,” he says.
The weather is warm, the soil is moist and there is a beautiful supply of plants in Florida and Georgia, so farmers should be going full bore soon, he adds. “We should have enough plants to plant all our acres. Commercial plant growers seem to have done a good job.”
Moore expects increased acreage in the two states compared to last year as a result of increased contract availability from some companies. “It seemed that most growers got as many contracts as they were looking for,” he says.
There may be one problem during transplanting: “We had a lot of rain during or after fumigating,” Moore says. “There’s a danger that the fumigant might be trapped in the beds as the rain sealed the tops or filled air pockets in the soil.” To avoid this, lightly cultivate the top of the bed before transplanting to provide for trapped fumigant to escape as the bed dries. But be careful not to pull down the beds completely and bring in untreated soil from the row middles when rebedding. Try to slightly pull down the bed without contaminating the area for transplanting.
Not all Deep South growers are convinced they should apply a foliar spray of Actigard to plants in the greenhouse seven days prior to transplanting as the first step in tomato spotted wilt control, but Moore votes yes. “There is a little problem of plants taking off in the field with Actigard, but the increased spotted wilt control you get is worth it.”
At the other end of the Tobacco Belt, tobacco farmers in Kentucky have made good progress on seeding greenhouses and should be finished by the end of this week if not sooner. “Stands in the greenhouse are good, with the biggest plants less than the size of a dime,” says Robert Pearce, Extension Tobacco Specialist.
Contracted burley acreage appears about equal to last year and may in fact be a little higher than last year, Pearce says.
There are no new burley varieties for this season, but KT 219 is entering only its second year of field use. It has given good yields in field trials, but its main selling point is early maturity. “You could use it to spread out harvest for maximum labor utilization,” says Pearce. If there has been any formal announcement that China is contracting tobacco from the United States this year, I haven’t seen it. But all kinds of individuals in the industry think purchases of around 80 million pounds by the PRC are all but a done deal. I assume that all of it will be flue-cured and that members of the USTC coop in Raleigh will be producing most of it. But that is speculation only.
An increase in flue-cured production seems likely. There have been estimates of 300 million pounds or more compared to roughly 235 million pounds in 2020. One would expect a greater demand for “Lemon” leaf than in recent years. Already, one warehouseman in N.C. told TFN (December I 2020 issue) that in last year’s sale—i.e., before the improvement in China sales prospects—he saw strong demand for lemon grades.
Priority for 2021: Wipe out weed seed. “There appear to be some big moves on the tobacco buying front and we need to help make these things happen as best we can,” says Matthew Vann, N.C. Extension tobacco specialist. “We don’t want our leaf rejected by foreign customers because it is found to contain noxious weed seeds.” Certainly, the term noxious is relative. “But those end users don’t want to import things like crabgrass and pigweed,” Vann says. “Reducing weed seed has to be a high priority, and it will only be accomplished with exceptional weed control.” Watch for more on this subject in future issues of TFN. | 
