Growth, Yield, and Efficiency of Potassium Fertilizer Use in Burley Tobacco Production

For many crops, band placement of fertilizer offers agronomic, economic, and environmental advantages over commonly used preplant broadcast applications. Drill banding most of the nitrogen (N) fertilizer 12 inches to both sides of the row for tobacco shortly after transplanting greatly aIleviates manganese toxicity and other nutrient imbalances, improves early growth and yield, and offers increased efficiency of N use. Nitrogen fertilizers applied after transplanting are less likely to be leached during excess rainfall events that commonly occur in April and early May in Kentucky