US: Rainfall Amounts Not Good for Tobacco; Some Growers Can Expect ''Fair Crop at Best''

Source from:  KyForward.com 07/10/2013

Tobacco growers throughout the state are off to a late, wet start as rains continued last week and a normally dry-weather crop is trying to cope with excess amounts of precipitation.
 
Some isolated areas in Kentucky saw at least 7 inches of rainfall within a five-day period, according to data from the Kentucky Mesonet Weather and Climate Data system, adding to an already rough beginning to the season.

"As far as the tobacco crop is concerned, it's been a bit of a tough start; a lot of wet weather, delayed planting and I'm still not sure if we're completely done with planting yet," said Bob Pearce, University of Kentucky College of Agriculture extension tobacco specialist. "I've heard stories of a few growers who are still trying to get crops in the ground because of the amount of rain that we've had."
 
Pearce added that for the crops that have been planted, plant conditions vary somewhat by region.
 
"Overall, I would say the majority of the crop is in fair shape. The amount of rain that we've had is just not good for tobacco," he said. "It really prefers to have a dry start so the root systems are not very well developed on this crop and we're seeing a lot of nutrient deficiencies that we wouldn't normally see."
 
Pearce noted that once the rains stop and if a dry period begins, historically tobacco will suffer due to those shallow root systems.
 
"History tells us and our expectation would be that with a wet start like this, it's going to be a fair crop at best," he said. "Certain areas within the last week had almost 4 inches of rain overnight a week ago, and we've had several inches of rain just in the past few days."
 
Pearce noted that some problems are beginning to show in terms of crops that have actually drowned.
 
"We're eventually losing some of those crops. We won't know the full extent of that until probably later this week when we see how the crops recover from this latest round of rain," he said.
 
For those who still have tobacco plants to set, the cut off date is rapidly approaching if not passed. Pearce said the second week of July is pretty marginal for most tobacco crops because harvest would come in mid-to-late October.
 
"By the middle of July, there is just no point in really thinking about (planting) beyond that point," he said.
 
Pearce said he has seen tobacco planted this late and some times a descent crop can be produced but typically it would be a compromised crop.
 
"You run the risk, if we have an early frost, of it actually getting frost damaged in the field and even without an early frost, it's being harvested and cured at a less than ideal time of the year so the quality, even if we get the pounds, is not really where we like it to be," he said.
 
At this time last year, the concern for tobacco as well as everything else was caused by the extreme heat being experienced in one of the worst drought seasons ever.
 
Tobacco however, made a turn around with timely rains last July demonstrating how the plants almost thrive in drier conditions.
 
"This year is just the opposite and regardless of what happens from this point on, we know from past seasons that this crop has already been compromised to a certain extent from which it won't be able to recover fully," Pearce said. "No doubts about that. We have seen time after time and year after year that a wet weather tobacco crop is going to be limited."
 
Pearce also said there could still be some good crops out there but typically in a wet year like this one especially if it continues to stay fairly wet, the growers will put a crop in the barn thinking they have a really good one until it cures and disappoints with a loss of a couple of hundred pounds per acre because of thin leaves.
 
"Even though the plant may have grown large and have a big surface area of leaves, the leaves tend to be thinner and don't weigh as good as they would have in a drier season," he said.
 
Tobacco growers likely planted about 5 percent more this year than in 2012, varying from region to region. Pearce said that was at least their intensions.
 
"If this weather changed some of those plans, that I don't have a good feel for right now. But potentially folks may have had (plants) they had planned to put out but weren't able to because of the weather conditions," he said. "This is a crop that could fool you but with the kind of start we've had, I'm not very optimistic on it turning around." 
 
The UK Agricultural Weather Center reported that rainfall amounts for July are normally 4.5 inches. Last week the overall average precipitation was 3.5 inches making it the wettest week in the state since mid-April, 2011. 

Temperatures were below normal by 8 degrees, as well. The three-month forecast is calling for above normal precipitation for Kentucky and most off the Southeast. Enditem