The act of topping tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) involves the removal of the terminal bud or inflorescence of the tobacco plant. This practice ordinarily is accomplished by manually removing the top of each tobacco plant in an entire field which is labor intensive and costly. A study was initiated in 2015 at the UK Agriculture Experiment Station near Lexington, KY and the Murray State University West Farm near Murray, KY to evaluate chemical topping in burley tobacco. This study builds on preliminary work performed in the last two years. The objectives of this study are to determine if burley tobacco can be chemically topped, the appropriate rate of chemicals, optimum timing of application, and appropriate burley tobacco varieties for this practice. To pursue our objectives, a study was designed with burley tobacco varieties TN90 (medium maturity), KT210 and KT215 (late maturity) to determine what maturity and timing of application is most effective. A second study was initiated to investigate the efficacy of suckericide applications using combinations of maleic hydrazide (MH), butralin, and fatty alcohols. These studies focus on the impact of treatments on the agronomic and quality traits of burley tobacco. All treatments that included maleic hydrazide had significantly less total weight and average weight of suckers per plant regardless of manual topping or chemical topping, compared to the untreated check. Early observations suggested that pre-bud (10% button) and early-bud (50% button) timings are best suited for chemical topping practices. Treatments that targeted 10% bloom stages did control sucker growth but did not completely halt inflorescence growth. Impacts on leaf yield and preliminary observations for the agronomic portion of these experiments will be discussed. (Reprinted with permission)