Tobacco belongs to the solanaceae crop family, and it is one of the oldest and also most complex crops, because it requires a deep knowledge of climate, soil and crop characteristics. This cultivation needs time, energy and resources. Italy is the main European producer, but the Italian production, which is mostly located in the Campania, Veneto, Umbria and Tuscany regions, only accounts for 1% of world tobacco production.
Tobacco varieties: rustica and tabacum.
The Rustica variety supplies snuff, whereas the latter produces cigar tobacco, pipe tobacco and cigarette tobacco. [foto varietà tabacco]
The choice of the most suitable variety depends on various factors, such as resistance to disease, drought and cold, but also the quality of the final product. The ideal climate for this crop to grow and bloom is between 25 and 30°C.
Dark tobacco requires clay and fertile soils, Oriental tobacco needs poorly fertile and not very deep terrains; light tobacco, however, prefers sandy soils and with a low organic fertility.
How to best grow tobacco
The plant crop cycle includes three phases: seedbed, field cultivation and care. First step: choose the tobacco variety that is mostly suitable for your growing area in relation to climate and terrain.
Second step: prepare the soil, which needs to be well processed and drained before sowing. When the terrain is ready, it is possible to proceed with the sowing in rows that are spaced approximately 30 cm. The seedlings must be planted at an adequate depth and the soil must be kept humid. Indeed, the crops need to be regularly irrigated but not too much in order to prevent any diseases and rot.
The ripening of leaves is gradual: you should wait around 40 days between the ripening of basal leaves and apical leaves. To maintain the quality of tobacco and to prevent any diseases, it is recommended to prune the plants once they have reached 30cm in height. Tobacco should be completely mature in about 90 days, according to the tobacco variety. Flowers, which continuously appear during the crop growth, must be removed, otherwise they prevent the growth of precious leaves.
Micro-irrigation plays an important role in a high-income plant cultivation, such as tobacco. Precision irrigation, indeed, permits us to reduce the costs of intervention on soil, and also allows us to combine it with fertirrigation, which enables you to optimize the plant nutrition, especially in the intermediate and final phases.
Tobacco drip irrigation
Water consumption of tobacco varies based on cultivar and increases in correspondence of flowering and ripening. Water needs are higher before the first harvesting, namely when the plant development is more intense.
In the last few years, the decrease in cultivated land and profitability together with the agri-environmental measures, have favored the introduction of innovative techniques, such as drip irrigation and fertirrigation. This is the case of the project developed by SAB (Arezzo, Italy) together with agronomist Matteo Cacciaglia in Anghiari for the cultivation of Kentucky tobacco: the only variety that is used to produce Tuscan cigar – an Italian excellence.
The project
Kentucky tobacco, a dark tobacco, is a crop that reaches 2mt height with 18-20 wide dark-green leaves. This plant prefers soils that are deep, medium-textured, fertile and rich in organic substance. The terrain is subject to a basic fertilizer and, thanks to drip irrigation, a better organizational efficiency of the crop management is guaranteed. Precision irrigation has also permitted us to fertirrigate the system, with a considerable saving in labour and a significant improvement of final product quality.
Let’s see the project characteristics:
Land size: 100x100m
Variety grown: cigar Kentucky tobacco, placed with a 1mt plantation pattern between rows.
The fertirrigation system was structured as follows:
- Injection station;
- Filtering station with 3’’ SABfilter filter 50mc/h of maximum flow rate;
- 4” RioFlex layflat hose in polyethylene Pressure model, 100mt with pre-installed female threaded ½” outlets every 100cm;
- 4” RioFlex fittings;
- Drip line Alis with flat dripper Ø22 – drip spacing 30cm, 8mil with 1 lt/h flow rate, 0.7 bar;
The system water flowrate was 33,300 lt/h. [foto installazione] / [foto campo con piante]
The irrigation developed with Alis dripline was carried out 3 times per week for 6 hours of continuous work for a total of 18 hours. The total water intake was approximately 600 cubic meters/hectare, always to be compared with weather conditions. After a month from the system installation, the drip line was buried with a ridger during the weeding operation.
Conclusion
Drip irrigation, combined with fertirrigation can offer significant benefits, avoiding problems related to performance and soil fertility. A good irrigation system, together with a proper design, ensures the maximum efficiency of our system.
SAB’s solutions for agricultural installations give us the chance to customize your system, so it is tailor-made for every need. Moreover, SAB products are totally recyclable, which makes our system 100% sustainable. Discover our irrigation products by clicking on the button below!
