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CORESTA Congress, New Orleans, 2002, APPOST 05

Limited effect of sucker control on yield of Italian style burley tobacco

INTERLANDI G.; TREMOLA M.G.; CAROTENUTO R.
Istituto Sperimentale per il Tabacco, Scafati, Italy

Shoot control treatments, both manual and chemical, were tested on Italian style Burley tobacco cv C104 in 2001 at Scafati, South Italy. Manual control was applied both on untopped and topped plants. Chemical control included a fatty alcohol (royaltac) at the rate of 20 ml/l, and three mixtures of the same with a flumetralin (prime plus) at rates increasing from 5 to 20 ml/l. Treatments were replicated two times in 40-plant plots. Each chemical treatment was applied one time immediately after topping. Shoot number and fresh weight were recorded at harvest for chemical treatments and several times for the manual control treatments. Leaves were harvested in four stages and cured under plastic barns. In spite of a twofold increase of shoot number, the shoot mass increased only by 3,5% with topping. Cured yield increased on average by 3,2% with topping. Manual control, without decreasing the number and mass of shoots, increased yield by 5% when applied to topped plants, but decreased it by a comparable rate when applied to untopped plants. The fatty alcohol inhibited shoots effectively, but decreased yield by 4% in comparison with the manual control of topped plants. The addition of flumetralin showed a slight improvement of shoot control, but no effect on yield.