Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons^™

Using Exogenous Hormone Application To Suppress Axillary Shoot Development In Tobacco, W. Jesse Carmack

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

The variability in the number of basal axillary shoots (ground suckers) among all tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) varieties, has increased since the hydroponic transplant production system became the standard. The larger root ball of hydroponically produced transplants compared to traditionally produced transplants potentially generates a difference in the ratio of auxin (inhibits axillary shoot formation) to cytokinin (promotes lateral branching), that induces basal axillary shoot development. Starting in 2014, studies were conducted to investigate whether the addition of synthetic auxins or cytokinins to hydroponic transplant production could prevent ground sucker formation. Different tobacco cultivars, with high or low ground sucker …