Dark production takes a hit in the Black Patch. Contracted acreage will apparently fall 10% to 55% below last season, depending on the buyer, says Andy Bailey, Kentucky-Tennessee Extension dark specialist. But bur-ley plantings may be up. “Burley supply has reached rock bottom worldwide, and the price offerings for 2023 look pretty good. If this keeps going, I could imagine that we might see more burley grown in Western Kentucky than we have had in the last 10 years”…Connecticut broadleaf is still grown in Western Kentucky but not nearly as much…“Most of our greenhouses were seeded around the 15th, and seed coats are starting to crack on trays seeded five to seven days ago...“We have had a few shortages or production problems on some varieties this spring. Seed of DT 558 dark, KT 222 burley and Tennessee 90 burley varieties may all be in short supply,” says Bailey.
Most burley growers in Tennessee are seeding greenhouses or thinking about it, says Mitchell Richmond, Tennessee Extension tobacco specialist. “We had very cold weather for four days over the last two weeks. It got into the low 20s. I hope our growers delayed seeding to hold down on their heating bills. It is hard to tell about acreage just yet, he says. “But burley prices do seem to be better”…There is considerable interest in KT 222, the new—and probably last—burley variety from the Kentucky-Tennessee breeding program. It is a large, high-yielding hybrid with an erect growth habit similar in maturity to KT 215 and has high resistance to both race 0 and race 1 black shank.g or thinking about it, says Mitchell Richmond, Tennessee Extension tobacco specialist. “We have had very cold weather for four days over the last two weeks. It got into the low 20s. I hope our growers delayed seeding to hold down on their heating bills. “It is hard to tell about acreage just yet,” he says. “But burley prices do seem to be better”…There is considerable interest in KT 222, the new—and probably last—burley variety from the Kentucky-Tennessee breeding program. It is a large, high-yielding hybrid with an erect growth habit similar in maturity to KT215 and has high resistance to both race 0 and race 1 black shank.
Tillage of flue-cured fields in Southside Virginia has been slowed because of rain, says Stephen Barts, Extension agent in Pittsylvania County, Va. “This is the last of March, and not much land preparation has been done.” There have been no other major issues. About the only problem has been that fumigators have had a hard time because of the weather...Most of the greenhouses here were seeded at the end of February and beginning of March, says Barts. Farmers will likely go to field in late April and early May, he says. “We expect acreage to be flat compared to last year, if not indeed an increase—that’s if all the plants in the greenhouse make it into the field.” A couple of Pittsylvania growers announced they werre quitting in the offseason, but some remaining growers may increase plantings to make up the difference. "There seems to be more optimism here than in several years,” says Barts.
Temperatures in Kentucky were down into the teens for several mornings last week and daytime highs were in the 40s causing heaters to run more than normal. Fortunately, no reports of cold injury have been reported yet for greenhouses that were seeded, says Bob Pearce, Kentucky tobacco Extension specialist. Seeding in greenhouses is about 60% complete with the remaining greenhouses expected to be seeded in the next week to 10 days. Transplanting will probably begin in Kentucky in early to mid-May, he says. “Growers will be hard pressed to equal last year’s plantings. We can reasonably expect acreage to be down 10%,” says Pearce. “A few growers have indicated they will quit growing tobacco this season, and I haven’t heard of many growers planning to increase acreage who could make up the difference.”
Spray drift is becoming more of a problem in Canada, says the Canadian Tobacco Research Foundation. Seedling injury in greenhouses from spray drift in the field is 0appearing more often. Action plan: Awareness of what is going on near the greenhouse and taking appropriate measures with vents and fans to minimize the entry of outside air.
In other tobacco news:
A new fungicide: Theia from AgBiome blocks fungal and bacterial pathogens with multiple modes of action. It was approved by EPA last year. It can be applied on flue-cured and burley with a zero day pre-harvest interval and it targets Pythium and collar rot. Another fungicide from AgBiome, still relatively new, is Howler, which delivers broad-spectrum activity and resistance management. Target pests for Howler include target spot, brown spot and Phytophthora. | 
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