The Effect of Suckercide Product and Application Rate on Chemical Topping of Burley Tobacco

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. The major objectives for this research were to determine which labeled suckercides could be used effectively for chemical topping of burley tobacco and the effect of suckercide rate on sucker control, yield, leaf quality, maleic hydrazide (MH) residues, and leaf chemistry. A study was initiated at Murray, Princeton, and Lexington, KY that investigated the efficacy of suckercide applications using combinations of MH, butralin, and fatty alcohols (FA). The terminal bud was not well controlled with FA or butralin alone, nor was adequate sucker control or total yield achieved. A significant reduction in total yield and sucker control were observed when plants were chemically topped with MH alone compared to manually topped or chemically topped with a tank mixture of MH and butralin at Princeton only. At the other locations, all chemically topped plants had similar yield to manually topped plants. Our data suggested that chemical topping of burley tobacco with a tank mixture of MH and a local systemic can be an acceptable alternative to manual topping as total yield and leaf quality grade index were not significantly different at any location. Total tobacco-specific nitrosamine (TSNA) content and MH residues were significantly lower with chemical topping treatments in some years and locations.