# Smoking and Tomato Plants



## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I have trouble every single year with my tomato plants. The blight, primarily, but also I have a number of of plants that fail to really bush up, and a scattering of other symptoms.

I visited a communal farm in Michigan yesterday that had the most beautiful tomato plants I've seen, crowded into long 4' wide beds. No mulch, but no blight either. I asked their secret and they said, "We don't allow smokers to handle the plants."

I smoke a pipe. Heavily, almost every morning before I go out and work in my garden, when I'm taking breaks from gardening, and after I garden. I had read before about the tobacco mosiac virus affecting tomato plants, but since my tomato plants didn't have the mosiac virus I hadn't worried about it. However now I'm wondering if indeed that does have something to do with it.

Would y'all please share your thoughts and experiences around this?


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## Skip (Mar 13, 2008)

A friend who has a greenhouse which they grow mostly tomatoes, states that the plants don't like nicotine. I smoke. How it affects my tomato plants I do not know. I will follow the thread to see where it leads. In the future perhaps wash your hands with soapy water before venturing into your garden?


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## Hoosierdaddy (Nov 22, 2005)

I, unfortunately, smoke about three packs a day, Marlboro Ultra lights. I lasagna garden and have better looking tomatoes than any of my nieghbors?

Brett


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## Kazahleenah (Nov 3, 2004)

I also smoke... and have beautiful tomatoes... no blight. :shrug:

Kaza


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## wy_white_wolf (Oct 14, 2004)

My tomatoe plants improved when I quit smoking. I rolled my own. Seems that those of us that roll our own or smoke a pipe have more trouble than those with prerolled smokes. We handle the tobacco directly with our fingers while others only touch the paper. Wash you hands good before you go out to the garden and after every break you take. That should cutdown on the plants exposure to raw nicotine.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i try not to smoke my tomato plants, lol. 

my suspicions were bolstered by a local ag article in the paper. i was right about my preliminary diagnosis of septoria leaf spot. i live on the border of PA and MD and this stuff is all over the place in my area. the plants can look awesome until right about now and then go downhill in a few weeks just as the fruit begins to ripen. (just a timing thing and has nothing to do with the fruit)

i smoke in the garden...the skeeters would fly away with me if i didn't, lol. i have never notived anything like TMV.


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## ChristyACB (Apr 10, 2008)

I think that virus is fairly limited in US grown tobacco..but all bets are off for anything not under our US regulations. But I did read that the virus is not the whole story, that the nicotine and other parts of the tobacco smoke are what they hate and it has a small but cumulative effect.

Supposedly, washing hands really well before going out and not smoking within 50 feet of the plants is supposed to work really well. I also read that not all types of tomatoes are equally affected.


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## mandidawn (Aug 11, 2006)

My grandma said the same thing to me this year - she told me my garden might not survive since I smoke. I do smoke around my plants, and this is what they look like. Beautiful!!!!


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## InfantryNCO (Feb 10, 2008)

My big boys and bush goliaths prefer it when I smoke around them. The big boys are currently between 6' and 9' tall and the bush goliaths all at a uniform 4'. I have been harvesting between 40 and 70 tomatoes weekly from 14 plants for the past 4 weeks.

I believe that whole "not smoking around your tomatoes" bs is just a wives tale.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Hrm. I'll start washing my hands more and limiting my pipe smoking around them and see if that helps some. It's not very scientific how I've been measuring the plants. Some of them do great and others not. It's hit or miss.

Thanks for the input so far. Seems to me there's a great mystery surrounding this.


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

I don't smoke, but I love to grow tomatoes. Ernie, my trick was always this, have a couple of rabbits or guinea pigs and bed them with just a little pine shavings and give them all the hay they want, if they sleep on some that's fine. I clean the cage frequently and plant my tomatoes right in that compost. I never have enough for the whole garden, so I just do as many tomato plants as I can and I can see a huge difference in the plants who get that and the plants that get horse or cow compost. Tomatoes love rabbit poo!!


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Smoke whatever you desire around your tomato plants as long as there's no Turkish tobacco in it. That seems to be the only place left where there are still some viruses which may be transmitted to tomatoes. Hasn't been a case in the US for many years.

Martin


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

rose2005 said:


> I was always told not to use tobacco sticks for tomatoes as they will cause blight, so maybe there is something in the story?
> 
> Rose


Since tomato blight does not affect tobacco plants, tobacco can not transmit blight to tomatoes. 

Martin


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

rose2005 said:


> All the old folk round here do not...ne else if you do not have measles!
> Martin


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

If you do a little research, you'll find that Wisconsin grew a lot of tobacco at one time. Dane County was noted for plug and cigar filler while Vernon County grew what was called Viroqua leaf for wrappers. Our base allotment was 2.2 acres and contracted to Robert Burns. We'd use the tobacco planter to set tomato plants to start the first row. Never once ever thought about TMV. There may have been an advantage to planting tomatoes with tobacco but I won't swear to it. That would be that the sphinx moths would prefer tomatoes over tobacco. Worms on tomato plants didn't take money out of our pockets like they would if on a tobacco plant. Especially so when a skunk would smell a worm and shred 3 or 4 tobacco plants trying to find it!

Martin


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

rose2005 said:


> I wonder where the old wives tale came from then? I heard it said in GA and in VA about the tobacco sticks.
> 
> Thanks for the info Martin.


It would not have been an old wives tale as those normally have little basis for truth. But when those old folks were young, there indeed was TMV in a lot of the cigarette varieties. Millions of dollars were spent to develop resistant varieties and eliminate it. Without looking it up, I'd say that the last confirmed case of TMV in tobacco was around 20 years or more ago. At the same time, every bit of nasty information that you find about TMV is true just as is the info on smallpox and polio. The nice thing is that the 3 are no longer active in this country.

Martin


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## Woodpecker (Mar 8, 2007)

thanks this was enlighting.


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## makeitmyself (Apr 18, 2008)

I wonder how car exhaust smoke affects tomato plants.


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

Paquebot said:


> It would not have been an old wives tale as those normally have little basis for truth. But when those old folks were young, there indeed was TMV in a lot of the cigarette varieties. Millions of dollars were spent to develop resistant varieties and eliminate it. Without looking it up, I'd say that the last confirmed case of TMV in tobacco was around 20 years or more ago. At the same time, every bit of nasty information that you find about TMV is true just as is the info on smallpox and polio. The nice thing is that the 3 are no longer active in this country.
> 
> Martin


Its true that TMV is controlled, but i know growers still practice no smoking or handling of tobacco products when they go to plant seed every year. 
I think the fear is that it will get started from a different strain or mutated strain. Not sure why.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

What I was told was that the TMV actually weakens the plant to the point where it's susceptible to a whole lot of other things, including blight. Don't know if that's true or not, but I do tend to have a higher than average number of sickly plants.

There's no telling what blends are in my Captain Black so it's probably better if I refrain altogether from smoking and then handling tomato plants. Might be better if I quit altogether, but that's for another day.


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## DrBraeburn (Feb 17, 2006)

I have been told to wash your hands before handling mater plants etc and also for black rot on bottom of maters put a handful of 10 -10- 10 fertilizer on ground occasionally and wet it in course I know nothing about maters since I pull off all the leaves except the top 3 and at last count I had 26 maters on one plant and more forming laffin


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## barelahh (Apr 13, 2007)

DrBraeburn said:


> I have been told to wash your hands before handling mater plants etc and also for black rot on bottom of maters put a handful of 10 -10- 10 fertilizer on ground occasionally and wet it in course I know nothing about maters since I pull off all the leaves except the top 3 and at last count I had 26 maters on one plant and more forming laffin


I'll tell ya what, your right washing hands because it isn't just stopping TMV but black root rot, as well as a host of other diseases. But on your three leaf tomato plant, I have 10 tomato plants, 2 black princes, 2 mortgage llifters, 2 romas, 2 mr stripeys, and 2 amana oranges that i have set aside for this test. I have more but these are planted separately for this test. OF each of them,
the black princes the one with leaves has 18 tomatos on it at this present time. The one without has 5. 
The romas, at present 12 on the one with leaves and 8 on the one without leaves
the mortgage lifters, 14 with leaves and the one without leaves is dying.
Mr. Stripeys the one with leaves has 8 and the one without has 6 and is looking sickly
the amana oranges have 6 on the one with leaves and none on the one without.

All seeds were planted at the same time, and all were transplanted into the bed at the same time. all are watered with equal amounts of water, and all are fertilized with goat manure tea once a week. 

So far your theory isn't panning out.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

DrBraeburn said:


> and also for black rot on bottom of maters put a handful of 10 -10- 10 fertilizer on ground occasionally and wet it in


"Black rot" on bottom of tomatoes is new to me. Is this a new disease to be concerned about or confined to just one very small area of the gardening world?

Martin


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## quadcam79 (Oct 1, 2007)

maybe if you pack that pipe with some type of alternative smoking material the plants will get happy, get the munchies and grow like crazy ...hehehehe


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## pickapeppa (Jan 1, 2005)

Ernie, I don't think it's your tobacco. I think it's this area in general. We have blight every single year. Some years I smoke, some years I don't. But this year, some rows have it and some don't. I must have some resistant varieties planted. Too bad I forgot which ones are which. Lol.

Puff away if it suits you. I've even mulched heavily around them, drip irrigate, trimmed the lower stems and leaves off to prevent contact with the soil, and viola! They still get it. I think it blows in on the wind. And we get a lot of wind.

And some varieties get a little, and some get a lot. It never stays the same from year to year. My new method to battling blight is - diversify and plant more varieties. That way, at least ONE will do well - hopefully.


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## piccololily (Mar 3, 2003)

A friend of mine is going to use a natural neem seed oil as a leaf spray. The research shows that it will control fungal diseases...maybe others too, can't remember. She is using 1 oz pure neem oil to a gallon or slightly more warm-not hot-water, with 1 tsp. of soap (castile is best, but I think dish soap will work) as an emulsifier. Don't use this more concentrated; it may burn plants. *Spray well once per week, only early mornings or evenings, when bees are not active*. Use within 8 hours of mixing. 

Her whole garden is affected by the leaf spot or early blight...she's not sure which--maybe both. It started on the irises last year, and now spread to tomatoes and everything else. 

The neem spray is also effective against a host of insects. I don't have blight or fungal issues, but I do have bugs! The ones that are especially destructive in my garden are the stink bugs...squash bugs and the green ones. I have used the spray once on my cukes for squash bugs, and they have almost disappeared. Very exciting, but I am still afraid to hope!

Here is a little info on neem oil, with uses toward the bottom--I have read more, but can't remember where! Do a search for more info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neem_oil

Here is where I got my neem oil. They shipped it REALLY fast--I got it FedEx in three days from when I ordered. www.neemresource.com 

Here's another source of neem oil: http://www.ghorganics.com/SupremeNeemOil.html

I've also heard of success with garlic/baking soda sprays. Don't have any more info on that though.


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## DrBraeburn (Feb 17, 2006)

no top leaves on your mater plants and they will die PERIOD


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Kazahleenah said:


> I also smoke... and have beautiful tomatoes... no blight. :shrug:
> 
> Kaza


Me too!!!


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## Farmerwilly2 (Oct 14, 2006)

I don't smoke, chew or dip. Neither do my mater plants. I leave the leaves on the plants since they went to the effort to grow them. I used to pull suckers but have better things to do now. I do like to pull off some of the lower shoots and open the bottom up to air, but beyond that they get water when they need it, rabbit droppings when I have them, and picked when they're ripe. Beyond that seems like spinning my wheels.


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## Wilbursmommy (Feb 27, 2003)

If your tomatoes are rotting on the bottom, you have blossom end rot. It's caused by a calcium deficiency. Whenever I have out of date milk, I add some water to it and pour it near the base of the plant. I've not had that problem for years.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

Wilbursmommy said:


> If your tomatoes are rotting on the bottom, you have blossom end rot. It's caused by a calcium deficiency. Whenever I have out of date milk, I add some water to it and pour it near the base of the plant. I've not had that problem for years.


Well, you're half right and that's about 95% more than some when it comes to BER/blossom end rot. Calcium deficiency is the culprit but that is because of the plant's inability to get it from the roots to the fruit. No matter what you do for it, it can not be cured, only prevented. By the time you notice the problem, the plant itself has already taken its own measures to correct it. That's why it is primarily limited to the first fruit. You may apply whatever you wish to the plants or soil and the problem will go away. It's just that whatever you use amounts to a placebo at that point and not a cure. 

Martin


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## MamaTiger (Jun 11, 2008)

Realize this is an older thread, but I'd never heard about smoking and tomatoes. Hmmm...I've had LOTS of trouble growing tomatoes and I do smoke. I'll keep this in mind for our fall garden.

amazing what you learn here at HT


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I've been conducting an experiment this year. In one section of the garden I have 200 tomato plants that I absolutely do not handle when I have been smoking or while I smoke. In another section I have 12 plants that I smoke sometimes while I'm weeding or collecting. (Market garden versus kitchen garen)

The plants that have come into contact with me smoking are suffering from blight and are generally stunty. The others are not and are thriving.

This hasn't been extremely scientific though. The plants are from different nurseries and are different varieties. There's also smoking residue on my clothes since, while I may wash my hands between the gardens, I don't change clothes. I also can't swear that I haven't forgotten a single time to wash my hands before going out to the market garden. In addition, the ones affected by blight are in a location where blight struck last year, whereas the market garden is in a virgin bed that has never been tilled before this year.

However, barring the uncontrolled variables, it still looks like there might be something to this.


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## kjmatson (Jul 22, 2008)

i agree with pickapeppa. i dont smoke but i get the same thing every year. i trim and manicure my tomatoe plants but it still happens. in one row i have 4 or 5 plants which are fine and 3 or 4 with it. i have had a heck of a time with split ends on my tomatoes because of all the rain we have had. Thank God it is suppose to dry up for a week.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i think it is a stretch to think that smoke residue on clothing would have any affect on anything. i am pretty sure that the fire would kill all of the nasties and the residue would be inert. it is far more likely that you indeed are seeing last years drama this year in the same location and the new location will show the disease in a year or two when bits of the tomato plant overwinter and allow the fungus to breed. i think your market garden is just happier because if there is fungus there, it is in small amounts that affect the plants less than the kitchen garden where you have the inevitable bits of tomato plant remaining behind all winter.


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