Field experiments were conducted to determine the reliability and efficiency of non-destructive, rapid, instrumental tools in tobacco production for predicting the optimum leaf ripeness for harvest. In this investigation tobacco leaf ripeness was assessed by an CCM-200 portable chlorophyll meter. The experiments were carried out during 2007 and 2008. The treatments were the manner of harvest (7, 4 and 3 primings) and the degree of ripeness at the time of harvest (unripe, ripe and over-ripe). In unripe, ripe and over-ripe stages, tobacco was harvested on the base of chlorophyll readings: in 2007 in the ranges of 20-25, 15-20 and 10-15; in 2008, in the ranges of 15-20, 10-15 and 5-10, respectively. The dependability and efficacy of the estimation of the ripeness of tobacco leaf for harvest was evaluated on the basis of agronomic traits observed in the light of previous knowledge and the results of other authors when in similar investigations the harvesting was carried out pursuant to a visual estimation of the ripeness of leaf for harvest. The greatest yield, price and total value in 2007 were achieved with the harvest of over-ripe tobacco and in 2008 with the harvest of ripe tobacco. In 2007 there was no fall in the value of the agronomic traits investigated with harvesting done in the phase of over-ripeness, which was on the whole the case in the research of other authors, and which did in fact happen in the following year. In both years of research, the best results were achieved when tobacco was harvested in a chlorophyll reading range of 10-15. Results of this investigation undoubtedly suggest the conclusion that chlorophyll reading is a reliable and effective tool for the estimation of the ripeness of tobacco leaf for harvesting.