Cigar wrapper tobacco has been grown under shade cloth in the well drained, stratified drift soils of the Connecticut River Valley for over one hundred years and annually fertilized with luxurious amounts of N as preplant incorporated organic meals such as cottonseed meal, linseed meal and castor pomace for over 60 years. Use of organic fertilizers is important for leaf quality and value but can contribute to significant losses of N as nitrate to ground water. Plasticulture is seen as one practice that may limit such losses but understanding how organic N is mineralized under the plastic is important for this crop and can also have applications to other crops fertilized organically. In 2000, preplant fertilizer treatments were 200, 100 and 0 lb N/A. Soil nitrate N in all treatments peaked at 42 days after application. The 200 treatment was consistently higher and the 100 and 0 treatments were not significantly different from each other throughout the season. In 2001, preplant amounts of 200 lb N/A and 300 lb N/A (plus 50 lb. N/A soluble supplement) were compared over coarse vs. fine soil and presence or absence of plastic film. Overall, soil nitrate N peaked at 28 days after fertilizer application for both preplant amounts. Slightly more N became available in the fine textured soil than in coarse soil. Soil nitrate N under plastic actually peaked at 35 days and remained high for several weeks thereafter but dropped off significantly at 35 days and remained low where the plastic was removed. In 2002, preplant treatments were 200, 100 and 0 lb N/A. Soil nitrate N for all treatments peaked at 28 days after fertilization with 200 the highest, followed by 100 and 0, respectively.