HIGH DENSITY PLANTING FOR MAXIMIZING AND OPTIMIZING LEAF PRODUCTIVITY IN DRY AND SEMI DRY ZONES OF FLUE-CURED TOBACCO GROWING REGIONS IN KLS

Abstract

FCV tobacco is an important commercial crop under rainfed farming in Southern Transitional Zone of Karnataka in KLS. Leaf being the essential economic part in tobacco, the number of leaves per plant, leaf area Index and net leaf dry matter production per unit area are the deciding factors in realizing higher productivity. Drought/moisture stress can substantially decrease the number of leaves, leaf thickness and expansion of individual leaf resulting in lower productivity and poor quality. Nearly two thirds of the tobacco growing areas in KLS falling under dry and semi-dry regions have been periodically experiencing drought/moisture stress severely affecting the sustainable productivity and quality. Field Experiments and large scale location trails were conducted during 2014 to 2018 seasons with four levels of plant densities (18,181, 22,222, 24,691 and 31,250 plants/ha) adopting spacing of 100 x 55 cm (Control), 90 x 50 cm, 90 x 45 cm and 80 x 40 cm respectively, in the popular variety Kanchan in KLS. The study revealed significant increase in cured lead productivity (11-16%) at higher planting density especially in low and medium rainfall zones. There were no perceptual changes in the cured leaf quality characteristics like nicotine, sugars and chlorides and were in normal desired range. High density planting following crop geometry of 90 x 50 cm may be recommended as one of the drought mitigating and climate resilient practices to optimize and stabilize the cured leaf productivity especially in low rainfall and poor fertile dry and semi dry zones of KLS.