Ingrid, I have nothing but respect for you, but I was a commercial grower for
years in one of the largest operations in America up on the east coast on Long
Island. They grew billions of flats of plants and perennials and TMV can and
does survive the smoking process. I'm not anti-smoking. I do not smoke any
more, and I used to smoke 2 packs a day. I voted to keep smoking rights in
public, etc. It's not a moral issue. However, tobacco is a nightshade, and all
nightshade plants are susceptible to TMV. I'm not saying you will infect your
garden, but I am saying there is a link at the commercial level. And yes, they
indeed do include infected tobacco when making cigarette grade tobacco for
smoking.

On Thu, 06 Mar 2003 17:17:18 GMT, wrote:

lets look at a few facts.
TMV kills tobacco, so fields with TMV are going to be destroyed, not grown up to make
cigarettes. Late and inapparent infections could be present in mature plants.
When tobacco is smoked, a fire combusts the material so it can be "smoked".
Fire kills virus.
Cigarettes are wrapped in paper by machines. The paper that comes into contact with
people's hands is not infected with TMV.

OTOH, TMV infects all kinds of other plants domestic and weed and is present in the
wild. It is carried by sucking insects from plant to plant. Not all plants infected
show disease, so weeding is more likely to cover the hands with all kinds of
diseases.
Touching the plant is not the most efficient way to transmit the virus. Handling the
plant that damages cells can for instance transplanting and suckering a tomato plant.
But the greatest source of TMV is going to be infected plants, so washing hands WHILE
TRANSPLANTING is going to prevent plant to plant transmission.

Ingrid

animaux wrote:
Please site this information or stop giving this as a suggestion. I've stood
and watched an entire greenhouse go down from TMV in a two day period because
one of the workers didn't wash his hands before running the transplant line.



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