Cuba Tobacco & Cigars

Topped & Suckering

The production of removing the tops buds and the side shoots like works to control growth

Topped
The tobacco grower must take care of each of his plants as if they were “delicate ladies", using José Martí's expression, because in the cultivation of tobacco there are works very related to this sentence before described, they are topped and suckering, which conform the group of activities that receive the generic name of works to control growth.
When topping there are biological, chemical, technological and economic objectives, which can be appreciated next:

a) Biological Objectives.
	To guarantee an appropriate balance among the radical systems. To deviate all reserves of the substances that should go toward the flowers to the leaves. To diminish the contents of a group of hormones and to balance others. To increase the thickness of the leaf and its mass. To diminish the distance between nodes.

b) Chemical Objectives

• To elevate the contents of nicotine
• To increase the chemical composition of the leaves.
• To increase the contents in nitrogenous substances.
• To stimulate the production of aromatic substances.
• To favor the production of oils and resins.
• To activate the processes of accumulation of dry mass in the foliage.

c) Technological Objectives

• To increase the resistance of the plant against noxious agents, mainly against the Heliothis
• To increase the resistance of the plant before drought.
• It facilitates to standardize among the plants the maturation process.
• It increases the maturation speed.
• It favors the yield of the plant.
• It facilitates a maximum of quality of the leaves.

d) Economic Objectives

• Elevation of the value of the mercantile production.
• The increase of the economic efficiency.
• High gain indexes.
• High Values of profitability.
• Low cost of production.
• Improvement of the economic and social efficiency of the tobacco production.

Classification of the topping activity

To execute this important work is necessary to keep in mind several factors, being two of them the most significant ones, they are: moment and height to top.

Moment of topping
This classification is carried out according to the development of the floral organs of the plant, it is important to delimit that the reproductive process (inflorescence) begins when in the terminal bud the last leaf has appeared, of course this happens in a place of the stem that can not be appreciated, that is to say the vegetative tissues have become reproductive ones, in this situation we are in presence of the earliest moment of carrying out this work and that at the same time in dark tobacco it means the maximum quality, this type of topped receives the Cuban name of (a la caja) because Cuba is one of the few countries where it is carried out.

To top (a la caja) is maybe the most specialized and difficult work carried out in tobacco, in general one out of 10 workers knows how to do this work and one out of 15 how to do it perfectly, this type of activity has as essential advantage to obtain the leaves with almost all the objectives that are required with this work to control growth and development and its disadvantage resides in a required high level of specialization by the workers and the low productivity of work.

After some days of having been the bud (a la caja) and not having eliminated it then it is classified as high topping. In this case the floral shaft is observed but being the flowers in their first moments, this topped is used very little and much less if it is tobacco for wrappers, of course in spite of the higher productivity in the work, the high topping doesn't provide a tobacco of high quality.

When inflorescence is eliminated when three or five flowers open, then the moment of topping receives the name of deflowering, of course this moment should not be considered as topped. This method to control growth is carried out fundamentally in Virginian tobacco (Flue-cured).

When the moment to carry out the work is defined, is necessary to value another important concept that is the one known as height of topping, to understand this method one must know that mancuerna are two leaves located one almost in front of the other one, in this case the classification includes topping five, six or seven..... mancuernas.

The moment and height of topping for the main types of dark tobacco cultivated in Pinar del Rio, are shown next:

Ways of carrying out the work of topping
Between 38 and 42 days after having planted dark tobacco, if it has received the required attention, the plants can be topped (a la caja), each plant is topped but all of them don't give the bud at the same time for what this work is repeated two or three times, to achieve uniformity among the plants.

A peasant carrying out the work of topping, in the picture on the left you can appreciate the appropriate uniformity of the plants that allow that almost 100 percent of them can be topped (a la caja) in a single moment.

Topped (a la caja), the peasant calculates the quantity of mancuernas that will have the plant and he removes the terminal bud, at this time there are no samples of the capsule that will originate flowering.

As can be appreciated the first indications of the floral shaft are observed, then we are in presence of a high topping but in the first moments of its development.

The peasant is carrying out the high topping and he shows us the bud (in its higher phase of development).

Suckering or elimination of the side shoots

The elimination of side shoots is direct consequence of the elimination of the terminal bud, in tobacco the same as in other cultivations a well-known physiologic phenomenon takes place that indicates that the hormones that are produced in these tissues inhibit the growth and development of the axillary buds that are those that originate the suckers. Therefore, when carrying out the topping work a quick growth of the suckers takes place being necessary to eliminate them.

If the suckering work is not carried out in the appropriate moment many of the reserve substances that should be accumulated in the leaves are used for the formation of tissues in the suckers, which in turn can protect certain plagues and illnesses, it would also provoke a poor development of the radical system and a considerable reduction of yield and quality.

In the types of dark tobacco the work of suckering is always carried out in the same way, although it is necessary to highlight that the suckers of the shade grown tobacco grow at great speed and this process is done when the suckers have a maximum longitude of five centimeters (two inches) The residuals of the suckers should not fall on the leaves and the work is applied to each plant two or three times, but as all the plants don't have the same uniformity it is necessary to plan this work in the same plantation three or five times.

It is recommended not to harvest tobacco in the first days after suckering, but in the case of sun grown tobacco (en palo) the plants should be suckered the same day of the harvest or the previous day.

Axillary suckers in the inferior central area of the plant of tobacco. Observe in the picture to the left the appropriate size to carry out suckering, to the right can be appreciated excessively developed suckers and consequently they will affect yield and quality.

Links & Sources:

• www.guerrillero.co.cu

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