Price: $3.49
SKU: 10006421
TN86 LC
Nicotiana tabacum L
[ Approximately 100 seeds per packet ]
'TN86 LC', also known as 'Tennessee 86 LC', is an improved Burley-type smoking tobacco with good disease resistance. TN86 LC is a low converter strain of the original TN86. Scroll down for an explanation of LC tobacco. Our seeds of this variety are F2 generation.
It is a late maturing variety with an extreme upright growth habit which results in less breakage and marketable leaf loss during harvest. 'TN 86' has a high yield potential and should be topped at about twenty-two to twenty-six leaves. Topping the plants higher than this will result in unnecessarily large plants that are difficult to manage and harvest.
'TN 86' matures to a lighter green color in the field when compared to other Burley tobaccos and air cures to a reddish-tan.
Like many tobacco varieties, 'TN86' is an amazing plant that grows from a seed as tiny as a pinhole, to well over six feet in height in a single growing season. The plants are attractive and make a very interesting addition to flower gardens. Since their flower heads will reach six feet or taller, they are typically planted in the back of the bed as opposed to along the border. Tobacco prefers healthy, rich soil in full sun. It blooms in mid to late summer and is attractive to pollinating insects. It is an annual (tender perennial in warmer climates).
'TN 86', was the first Burley tobacco variety developed with resistance to TVMV (Tobacco Vein Mottling Virus), TEV (Tobacco Etch Virus), and PVY (Potato Virus Y). It is also resistant to Black Shank (Race 0 and Race 1), Black Root Rot and Wildfire bacteria.Developed by Dr. Robert Miller at the Tobacco Experiment Station in Greeneville, Tennessee using material originally crossed by Dr. Creighton Gupton, former USDA Agricultural Research Station Burley tobacco breeder at the Tobacco Experiment Station in Greeneville. It was released by the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station in February of 1986.
Over the past several decades, selective breeding has reduced the nornicotine content in most modern day varieties to near zero in burley and dark tobacco types. With the goal of further reducing TNSA's, research is now focused on lowering the amount of nicotine which converts to nornicotine during the curing process. To qualify as a LC tobacco, the conversion rate must be 3% or lower.
The conversion rate of nicotine to nornicotine is controlled by particular genes in the plant, but is not consistent from plant to plant, and declines in successive generations. To be classified as an F1 generation LC tobacco, a leaf sample must be take from each plant during each growing season and it's conversion rate measure. Only seeds from plants with less than a 3% conversation rate can qualify as certified F1 generation LC seed.