Quantitation of Maturity of Fresh Flue-cured Tobacco Leaf

The field experiments were conducted for two consecutive growth seasons using SPAD-502 chlorophyll meter to quantitate the maturity of fresh flue-cured tobacco leaf. The results showed that the degree of maturity of fresh leaves was mostly reflected by their chlorophyll content. SPAD which related closely to chlorophyll content was chosen as an index for discriminating the degree of maturity of fresh leaf, and a discriminating model based on SPAD value was established, the degree of maturity categorized with this model coincided with that categorized by traditional method at a rate of 91%. It implied that the degree of maturity of fresh leaf could be quantitatively discriminated with the established model.