The present disclosure includes methods and compositions for improving leaf quality in low-alkaloid tobacco plants, e.g., by combining inducible promoters and non-coding RNAs for suppression of an ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) gene. Also provided are low alkaloid tobacco plants with normal, suppressed, or otherwise altered polyamine levels. Further provided are tobacco plants with altered total alkaloid, nicotine levels, commercially acceptable leaf grade, their development via breeding or transgenic approaches, and production of tobacco products from these tobacco plants.