How will Connecticut broadleaf fare in its first extensive year of production in the South?You can find that out at field days in North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia this month. See below for details. The photo above shows the Connecticut type growing in a field at the Laurel Springs, N.C., research station. Courtesy of Matthew Vann.
Elsa had been downgraded to tropical storm status by the time it reached Georgia and north Florida. It brought about a half inch of the rain on the west side of the tobacco area and as much as six inches farther east. “Our sandy soils performed very well after the storm except in wet spots that probably shouldn’t have been planted in the first place,” says J. Michael Moore, Extension tobacco specialist. “But the rain kept us out of the field for harvest part of the time since. As things dry out and the tobacco begins to ripen, harvest will pick up”...Elsa crossed S.C. on July 8. “We got some strong winds and up to 4.5 inches of rain. But the damage wasn’t great except in isolated areas,” says Matthew Inman, tobacco Extension specialist. “It could have been a lot worse.”
REPORTS BY STATE
FLUE-CURED
South Carolina: Close to 50 percent of S.C. growers have be-gun harvesting, says Inman. Topping meanwhile is 85 percent complete, and probably would have been farther along by now but heavy rains in the last month prevented field work for some growers.
North Carolina: Conditions vary widely for the N.C. flue-cured crop. After a dry April and May, it has been very wet, says Matthew Vann, N.C. Extension tobacco specialist. “I understand some tobacco-growing areas had record rainfall for the months of June. Especially south of Highway 64 and east of 95, we have had a lot of rain. On the other hand, north of Raleigh and toward Greensboro and down to the Sandhills, there is a fine crop. Western Piedmont, from Winston-Salem west, could use a good rain. Topping would get in full swing.”
Georgia/Florida: One of the problems of all this rain is that it reduces the effectiveness of the root system. That in turn could circumvent the resistance mechanisms in disease resistant varieties which are usually located in the roots,” says Moore. It is much to be hoped that soils dry out soon..." Despite the rain, it has not been a bad year for diseases in the Deep South. “Tomato spotted wilt virus has run its course for this season with less than 10 percent of the plants showing symptoms,” says Moore. “Black shank is the only real ques-tion at this point. Target spot seems to be reasonably well managed with Quadris”…About 500 acres of tobacco blew over as a result of the storm. That has happened several times. “Some farmers had to set plants back up more than once.” Farmers have complete topping, but only about three percent has been harvested.
BURLEY AND DARK
Kentucky: Two weeks of rain has caused the burley crop to go down- hill, though not every grower was affected, says Bob Pearce, Kentucky Extension tobacco specialist. Occasionally you find some areas of drought, with the effects normally associated with drought stress… The USDA reported in its Crop Progress and Conditions Report, For most farmers, the rain was welcome as conditions had been very dry. Only a few early crops are being topped now, and harvest at full speed is probably two or three weeks away. “But harvest of Connecticut broadleaf is finished,” says Pearce. “It is very fast-growing [compared to burley], and only needs two weeks from topping till you harvest it.”
Tennessee: The burley crop appeared in good shape as recent rains greatly improved crop conditions. “I was just in middle Tennessee this week, and a lot had been topped already,” says Mitchell Richmond, Tennessee Extension tobacco specialist. “There have been a few cases of black shank and a few instances of boron deficiency, but this crop is doing well”…The USDA estimates that 25 percent of Tennessee tobacco had been topped by July 12 and that five percent of the crop remained to be planted at that time.
More tobacco news...
USTC seeks Chapter 11: U.S. Tobacco Cooperative (USTC) in Raleigh, N.C., filed for Chapter 11 protection in Federal Court on July 7 to meet its obligations to member-growers during crop season 2021. “This filing provides us the best way possible to meet our short-term obligations and plan for the future,” said Oscar J. House, CEO and President of the Cooperative. “In no way does this action reflect on the health of the organization and its ability to continue operations well into the future.” This filing will allow USTC to reorganize and restructure to honor commitments to stakeholders and ensure the organization’s sustainable future, a statement from the cooperative said. Watch this space for more on this development.
TOBACCO EVENTS SUMMER 2021
- A Tobacco Field Day will be held in North Carolina July 21 at the research station in Oxford, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. For more information, contact mcvann@ ncsu.edu.
- The Kentucky Corn, Soybean, and Tobacco Field Day will be held July 27, at the University of Kentucky Research Center, in Princeton, Ky., from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- A field day will be held on July 29 displaying the tobacco research at the Southern Piedmont Center, 2375 Darvills Rd., Blackstone Va., from 9 a.m. to lunch.
- Kentucky’s Dark Tobacco Twilight Tour will be held August 12 at 5:30 p.m. on the West Farm of Murray State University, 615. Robertson Road No., Murray, Ky.
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