Tomatoes and Tobacco

No, this is not a new recipe post. There is a connection between tomatoes and tobacco that you might not know about. It is really good to know if you grow tomatoes and are also a smoker. Some of the tobacco in cigarettes contains a disease called tobacco mosaic virus. Tomatoes are susceptible to this disease. If you are both a tomato grower and a smoker it is important that you wash your hands before going out to the garden or you could transmit this disease to your tomato plants.

Some hybrids are resistant to the virus. If there is a letter “T” after your tomato’s name it means it is resistant. Roma tomatoes are resistant. Hybrids will often have other letters after their names like VFNT. Means they are resistant to Verticillium wilt, Fusarium wilt, Nematodes and Tobacco mosaic virus. That is what those letters mean.

So, if you smoke wash your hands before going out to the garden.