Ihtesham ul Haq, Abdur Rauf1*, Nabila Bano2, Muhammad Qayash3, Farooq Jan1, Ikramullah Khan1, Faiza Bano2, Muhammad Asmatullah2, Abdul Ghaffar Khan2, Muhammad Faiq1, Muhammad Sadiq1, Zaheen Akhtar1, Mamoona Bibi1, Shaista Bibi1, Syed Abidullah1, Wisal Khan4 and Yumeng Liu5
1Garden Campus, Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 2Pakistan Tobacco Board, Mardan (Ministry of National Food Security and Research) 3Garden Campus Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 4Garden Campus Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 5Huazhong Agricultural University, China
*Corresponding author: rauf77@awkum.edu.pk
The yield and quality of tobacco crops are affected by the concentration of Zinc (Zn). The current study was designed to analyze the application of different doses of Zn on the quality and output of Flue-Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco variety TM-2008. The Zn was applied during a) Root dipping (2% and 5%), b) Transplantation, c) Fertilisation (3% and 6% Zn), and d) Foliar spray (0.25% and 0.5% Zn), with a control without Zn application. Our results showed that the Soil-T2 treatment had the highest leaf potassium (K) concentration (34.43 gm/Kg), leaf Zn concentration (3.27 gm/Kg), nicotine content (2.81%), total sugars (15.51%), and chloride content (0.91%). The Soil-T1 treatment produced the highest green leaf yield (17190 Kg/ha) and leaf yield after curing (3228 Kg/ha), whereas Foliar-T2 produced the best leaf yield after curing (17120 Kg/ha). In conclusion, applying 3 Kg or 6 Kg of Zn to the soil is the ideal way to apply fertiliser and is suggested for improving tobacco leaf output and quality.