Abstract: Aiming at the problems such as high leaf damage rate and poor harvesting quality existing in the mechanical picking process of flue-cured tobacco, this paper proposes a manipulator picking method suitable for flue-cured tobacco based on the research on agronomic and physical characteristics of flue-cured tobacco combined with stem-leaf separation properties. Taking the middle and lower leaves of Yunyan 301 as the research object, the physical characteristics of mature fresh tobacco leaves to be harvested and the mechanical properties of the leaf main vein stem-leaf junction under loads in three different directions were studied to determine the optimal force application direction for manipulator picking. Loads were applied at different action positions within the leaf vein section of 0-80 mm from the leaf base, and the relationship between different action positions and applied loads was explored. The results show that the picking mode with longitudinal force applied by the manipulator at a position 50 mm away from the stem-leaf junction can reduce leaf damage and lower picking energy consumption, which provides a reference for the motion path design of tobacco picking manipulators.