FRANKFORT, Ky. — Tobacco growers throughout the state are off to a late, wet start as rains continued last week and a dry-weather crop tries to cope with excess amounts of precipitation.

Some parts of Kentucky saw at least 7 inches of rain fall within a five-day period, according to data from the Kentucky Mesonet Weather and Climate Data system, adding to an already rough beginning to the season.

“As far as the tobacco crop is concerned, it’s been a bit of a tough start; a lot of wet weather, delayed planting, and I’m still not sure if we’re completely done with planting yet,” said Bob Pearce, University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture extension tobacco specialist. “I’ve heard stories of a few growers who are still trying to get crops in the ground because of the amount of rain that we’ve had.”

Pearce added for the crops that have been planted, conditions vary somewhat by region. “Overall, I would say the majority of the crop is in fair shape. The amount of rain that we’ve had is just not good for tobacco,” he said. “It really prefers to have a dry start, so the root systems are not very well developed on this crop and we’re seeing a lot of nutrient deficiencies that we wouldn’t normally see.”

Pearce noted once the rains stop and if a dry period begins, the past shows tobacco will suffer because of those shallow root systems. “History tells us and our expectation would be that with a wet start like this, it’s going to be a fair crop at best,” he said. “Certain areas within the last week had almost 4 inches of rain overnight, a week ago, and we’ve had several inches of rain just in the past few days.”

Pearce noted some problems are beginning to show, in crops that have actually drowned. “We’re eventually losing some of those crops. We won’t know the full extent of that until probably later this week when we see how the crops recover from this latest round of rain,” he said.

For those who still have tobacco plants to set, the cutoff date is rapidly approaching, if not passed. Pearce said the second week of July is pretty marginal for most tobacco crops because harvest will come in mid- to late October.

“By the middle of July, there is just no point in really thinking about (planting) beyond that point,” he said.

Pearce has seen tobacco planted this late and some times a decent crop can be produced, but typically it will be compromised.

“You run the risk, if we have an early frost, of it actually getting frost-damaged in the field and even without an early frost, it’s being harvested and cured at a less-than-ideal time of the year so the quality, even if we get the pounds, is not really where we like it to be.”

At this time last year, the concern for tobacco as well as everything else was caused by the extreme heat in one of the worst drought seasons ever. Tobacco, however, made a turnaround with timely rains last July – demonstrating how the plants thrive in drier conditions.

“This year is just the opposite and regardless of what happens from this point on, we know from past seasons that this crop has already been compromised to a certain extent from which it won’t be able to recover fully,” Pearce said. “No doubts about that.

“We have seen time after time and year after year that a wet-weather tobacco crop is going to be limited.”

Pearce said there could still be some good crops out there but typically in a wet year, growers will put a crop in the barn thinking they have a really good one until it cures and disappoints with a loss of 200 pounds per acre because of thin leaves. “Even though the plant may have grown large and have a big surface area of leaves, the leaves tend to be thinner and don’t weigh as good as they would in a drier season,” he explained.

Tobacco growers likely planted about 5 percent more this year than in 2012, varying from region to region. Pearce said at least that was their intention.