Change and Cluster Analysis of Potassium Content in Flue-cured Tobacco Leaf from Hunan

Abstract

946 flue-cured tobacco samples of 3 stalk positions (upper,middle and lower) were collected from main tobacco-growing areas in Hunan Province,and their potassium contents were determined with continuous flow analyzer and the distribution character of potassium content was studied. The results showed that the ave-rage potassium contents in upper,middle and lower leaves were 2.11%,2.34% and 2.71%,respectively. The samples with potassium content of 2.0% accounted for 43.6% in upper leaves,21.0% in middle leaves and 5.5% in lower leaves. The potassium content in some of the upper leaf samples was much lower. The potassium contents differed extremely significantly in upper and middle leaves between different crop years,not significantly in lower leaves. For the leaves from the same stalk position,main tobacco cultivars in the order of potassium contents were K326Yunyan87Yunyan85,though the difference was not significant. The potassium contents in flue-cured tobacco leaves from central Hunan were higher than those from south and northwest Hunan,and the difference was extremely significant among different growing areas; the potassium content in leaves from Changsha was higher,those from Shaoyang,Huaihua,Hengyang,Changde,Chenzhou and Yongzhou was high,those from Loudi was low. Spatially there showed a trend of high-low-high from southwest to northeast and high-low from south to northwest. The results of cluster analysis suggested that the potassium contents in flue-cured tobacco leaves from Hunan Province could be divided into three categories (middle,high and middle-low).