Can you smoke near tomato plants? I seem to remember something about not being able to, and my tomatoes are on my deck. Do I move, or move the tomatoes, or no worries, mate?
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Tobacco mosaic virus, that's what I was thinking of.
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Huh, never heard that I smoke near mine all the time, never been a problem.
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I never smoked or chewed snuff in the garden because of mosaic. It only gets cucurbits, I think. Melons and cukes and stuff.
I don't think you'd need to worry about smoke at all, Pete. Spitting snuff and touching the plants with stinky fingers is probably a bad idea.
I wiped out a whole crop of melons and cukes once. I did it by handling the vines in the morning while I was training them. It was 20 some-odd years ago, so I don't remember the details. I'm just more cautious now. :-)
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I went and looked, Pete. Appears mosaic is dispersed worldwide and it attacks over 150 species, tomatoes included. The Internet kicks ass, I had to figure all that stuff out with books before. :-)
It's a live virus, so it'd get cooked in smoke, so you'd probably be okay in your situation. Just don't butt your smokes in your planters, and don't be touching your plants.
I'm cautious, but I don't have to be biosecure to keep from making my plants sick, and I'm a full blown tobacco hog. I'm never without snuff, and it's probably a lot more dangerous by it's nature than cigars. :-)
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Supposedly TMV can only withstand 120F for 30minutes, so, if that information is accurate, it seems doubtful that it would be able to survive the fermentation process for cigars.

Plus, TMV requires a cut in the plant to infect it (pruning with contaminated sheers, insect mandibles, etc...) anyway.

BTW, guys, think about this, in just about every photo I've ever seen of a cigar tobacco grower in his fields, they have a cigar burning. It's not for show either. I don't think you have too much to worry about with cigars and TMV.

Also, some of the hybrid tomato plants have been breed to be resistant to TMV. When you look at the names of the plants or seeds, you might see some seemingly random letters after them, like VF, VFN, VFFNTA etc... This is a listing of the various tomato diseases/afflictions which this particular seed is resistant to; capital "T" is the tobacco mosaic virus (not to be confused with "St" which is something else - I forget what)
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As Scott said, Pete.

I stay away from the garden with cigars. I never throw butts in there, either. Can it cause a problem, don't know...but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Scott even grows tobacco in his vegetable garden and his garden is awesome. Go figure.
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