LEAF NEWS
Some tobacco only suffered leaf loss (left). But the whipping action of the intense winds caused a chemical reaction in the leaves that lead to premature ripening and subsequent loss of value (above). Both pictures were taken near Wilson, N.C.
UNITED STATES What Hurricane Dorian Did to the U.S. Tobacco Crop raleigh—The tobacco farmers of Eastern North Carolina and the Pee Dee section of South Carolina were wondering what they had done to deserve divine retribution. How else to describe three hurricanes in only 12 months? Dorian arrived in the Carolinas on September 6 and punished the tobacco in the field by blowing some fields flat, blowing leaves down in others, and generally whipping the remaining leaves so that they began a heightened ripening process that lead to leaf deterioration. These were the same effects that Hur-
ricane Florence had caused. But Dorian’s damage was much less, largely because Dorian only stayed in the tobacco-producing area for about a day. Only 10 to 15 percent of the S.C. tobacco crop (all flue-cured) was still in the field when Dorian arrived, said S.C.’s Extension agronomy agent responsible for the tobacco-growing area. “There was not much blowing off of leaves, but there was a lot of over-ripening due to the plant’s production of ethylene.” Farmers tried to harvest and barn what they could, but he predicted that three quarters of the tobacco that was in the field on the sixth would eventually be abandoned. If that occurred, we would
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be talking very roughly about a loss in the range or 20,000,000 pounds. In North Carolina, farmers were harvesting as fast as they could as of September 15. In recent years, the flue-cured harvest in this area has lasted until October 21 or later, but one Extension specialist predicted that all harvestable tobacco would be out of the field by October 1. That would reflect very hasty gathering to salvage as much leaf as possible from deterioration. To get the kind of leaf quality farmers here try to achieve, they would have needed until at least October 15, the specialist said. About 16 counties had at least some effect of Dorian. The worst damage was in the Coastal Plain, east and south of Raleigh. There was some damage in the northeast but considerably less. In the hardest hit areas, crops sustained enough wind damage that a complete loss of what remained was possible. What didn’t get blown off or blown flat was likely to turn loose from or die on the stalk. But in the Piedmont, Dorian had hard-
