‘Criollo 98’ tobacco: leaf chlorophyll content and commercial quality, as influenced by soil amendment with acid peat

Abstract

Tobacco soils of the Rhodic Ferralsol group affected by alkalinity were amended with acid peat (0; 15; 30; 45 and 60 m3 ha-1) to reduce their pH and thus to increase the production of wrapper leaf for export cigars in the region of the Partido zone, located in Alquízar municipality, Artemisa province. The research was conducted for four consecutive crops at the UBPC “Felipe Herrera Acea” (Basic Unit of Cooperative Production) of the mentioned location, with the Cuban dark tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) seed ´Criollo 98´. Indicators of the vegetable response were: the chlorophyll content [SPAD units, in crop] for each priming and the percentage of production with exportable quality, for every treatment. The photometric readings [SPAD units] for every priming and treatment were related with the vegetable response in terms of exportable commercial quality, for the calculation of chlorophyll critical levels [Cate & Nelson´s method]. Leaf chlorophyll variation as response to acid peat treatments follows quadratic models of R2 ≥ 0,72, although the greatest variation occurred between primings, in the opposite way to leaf harvesting: corona>centro gordo>centro fino>centro ligero>uno y medio>libre de pie and without relationship with the amendment. The wrapper production for export cigars increased by 10 % with respect to the 0 dose, being the [45 and 60 m3 ha-1] treatments the best statistically responses. The critical levels calculated for chlorophyll content in every priming ~first reference of its kind for the seed in the Partido zone~ match the technical maturity moment [suitable for harvesting] with the possibility of obtaining, at least, 30 % of the total production with exportable commercial quality.