Date Available

7-24-2019

Year of Publication

2019

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

College

Agriculture, Food and Environment

Department/School/Program

Plant and Soil Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. William A. Bailey

Abstract

Field trials were conducted in 2016, 2017 and 2018 with dark fire-cured, dark air-cured, and burley tobacco at Princeton, Murray and Lexington Kentucky. Tobacco variety used in 2016 was a low converter (LC) variety, varieties used in 2017 and 2018 were LC and higher converter (HC) varieties. Potassium sources used at all locations and in all years were potassium sulfate (K2SO4) and potassium chloride (KCl). Application rates used at all locations and in all years were 93, 186, 279 kg K ha-1along with an untreated control that received no potassium. In all trials, tobacco that was treated with either potassium source yielded numerically higher than the untreated control. In seven out of 10 trials, LC varieties had a higher moisture content than HC varieties. Tobacco treated with KCl had higher chloride levels than tobacco treated with KSO4.Quality grade index was similar for tobacco treated with KCl compared to tobacco treated with K2SO4. In all trials, tobacco treated with KCl had numerically lower Tobacco Specific Nitrosamines (TSNA) levels than tobacco treated with K2SO4. Reductions in TSNA levels were 30% lower in tobacco treated with KCl compared to tobacco treated with K2SO­4.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.313

Funding Information

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

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