effects of topping and suckericide on leaf quality of tobacco (nicotiana tabacum)

Topping stage of tobacco is a key time for development of agriculture measures to promote the quality of leaves. in order to investigating influence of topping timing and suckericide content on tobacco leaf, a factorial experiment on the basis of rcb design with 3 replications was conducted in 2011 at the tobacco research farm of isfahan. treatments were including topping time (t1: topping at early button and t2: at early flowering), prim+ content (a1:8, a2:10, a3:12, a4:14 ml/per plant) and prime+ concentration (c1: 1.35%, c2: 1.5%) are first, second and third factors, respectively. results showed that, effects of topping timing and prim+ content were significant for number of suckers, fresh and dry weight of suckers and leaf area of tobacco. dry weight and leaf length of tobacco were significantly affected by different prim+ concentrations. topping at early button resulted in deduction of suckers in tobacco, consequently caused to production of lower sucker weight and higher tobacco leaf area. moreover, application of higher concentration of prim+ at early button stage had considerably better effects on sucker growth control and tobacco leaf quality. this result clearly indicated that topping at early growth stage and controlling sucker growth with using suckericide enhanced tobacco leaf quality in the field.