Abstract: In order to clearly define the limiting meteorological factors which affect the growth and development process of flue-cured tobacco in Shandong, and to properly arrange field growth duration, field experiments using four main varieties of NC55, NC102, K326,ZY100 with different transplanting date treatments were carried out for multiple years to analyze changes in growth period, and define the relationship between meteorological factors and growth process of flue-cured tobacco. The results showed that the growth duration of tobacco was significantly shortened with the delay of transplanting date, mainly at the vegetative growth stage (root extension period) and the vegetative and reproductive growth stage (exuberant growth period) before budding. Temperature condition was the key meteorological factor that affects the growth duration of tobacco in Shandong. The temperature at early growth stage increased significantly with the delay of transplanting date, speeding up the development process and causing a significant shortening of the growth period. However, the effective accumulated temperature remained basically constant, in line with the constant accumulated temperature theory. The accumulated photo hours decrease due to the shortened growth time.