I know a small amount about TMV, and I know just enough about it to say that if I were you, I'd go ahead and plant the tobacco although not terribly close (I'll explain why in a second) to the tomatoes or peppers or, if you have them, petunias or ground cherries. Maybe not close to eggplant either. Nowadays, most hybrid tomatoes have some degree of resistance to TMV. In fact, TMV generally is not a problem for the average home gardener and hasn't been in quite some time. Nowadays, TMV is largely an issue in large commercial tomato-growing operations where it generally is spead by mechanical means. They no longer think it is necessarily spread as widely by insects as once believed. Regarding the cigarette connection, it depends on the source of tobacco in your cigarettes. For about the last 20 to 25 years or so, tobacco grown in the USA is TMV-tolerant. However, Turkish tobacco is not. Now, about the plants susceptible to TMV infection: there are a lot of them! Many of us grow a lot of plants that can become infected with TMV, although that doesn't necessarily mean they will. Among the plants that can serve as hosts for TMV are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, petunias, marigolds, snapdragons, and delphiniums. There is also a somewhat lower risk that the following can contract TMV: impatiens, ground cherries, zinnias, phlox, cucurbits like squash, melons and cucumbers, and the whole nightshade family, including daturas like jimsonweed (angel's trumpets). For what it is worth, I grow all kinds of TMV-susceptible plants and I bet I haven't seen 5 cases of TMV in my garden in all the years I've been gardening. Among the plants I commonly grow are several types of nicotianas in my moon garden. Nicotianas are commonly called 'flowering tobacco'. I've never had them show any symptoms of TMV. My brother smokes and that includes smoking while working in his garden and I've never seen TMV on any of his plants either. Earlier, I suggested that if you plant tobacco, you plant it some distance away from your tomatoes and other susceptible plants. The reason for that suggestion is that tobacco hornworms may be attracted to the tobacco plants, and since tomato hornworms already are an issue, why double your trouble by attracting tobacco hornworms too? Now, Cucumber Mosaic Virus is a whole different issue, and there's a Pepper Mosaic Virus too, I think. Cucumber Mosaic Virus is widespead and it is spread by insects, so once it appears in your garden, it can become widespread. I generally don't see it often here, but some folks see it often, maybe even every single year. I believe that often CMV is misdiagnosed as TMV by home gardeners. I think often it takes a plant pathologist to be able to distinguish between the two. Jay may be able to tell you more. I think in his area he may see some CMV and TMV, if not on his plants, then on other folks' plants. Finally, for what it is worth, I have grown tobacco and found it to be a very coarse and ugly plant. And, just to be evil and perverse, I planted it right next to a row of tomato plants. The nearest tomato plant was maybe 3' from it and neither one of them had any disease issues. I didn't think the tobacco was nearly as pleasing in appearance as the nicotianas. Dawn

First, what sort of symptoms did your plants have? And second, you -- and the folks in Chanticleer -- need to know that the virus isn't in the soil. As to which green manure is well suited to your region, call your county's Extension Service office and ask the Master Gardeners. Or ask at a nearby independent garden center or farm store.

No - not from Driftwood - but used to have family there (years ago) and visit often. I'm in Los Angeles County -- near the ocean. The plants are in containers because due to small lot size, there is no room to plant lots of tomatoes. As to my problematic plant, I will take action tomorrow. Either move it, or destroy it. The problem is, due to that small lot size, I can't move it far enough away. Apparently the virus is spread by aphids - and I don't want the others to get it (if that is what it is). I guess I'm hoping it is something else (e.g. herbicide) - but I don't think that only one plant could have been affected. And, literally no one in the area does gardening (and sprays) as most homes here don't even have gardens. I guess I should be thankful we don't have whitetail problems here, LOL.

Cheri, there are those who will continue to make their own tobacco preps despite what I or anyone else might say. TMV hasn't been a major problem for many years and I'd have to look up the date, but the last outbreak in the US in a field of tomatoes was in MO many years ago. There are small outbreaks here and there and I think the last one I knew of was in CA a few years ago. TMV is found sometimes in large commercial greenhouses where it's spread manually, not by insects. And tolerance to TMV is still found in most newer hybrids b'c it's easy to breed in. And perhaps most importantly the commercial tobacco grown in the US for maybe the last 20 years has been TMV tolerant, but that's not true of Turkish tobacco. THe diseaase that seems to make some folks think they have TMV is Cucumber Mosaic Virus ( CMV) b'c the symptoms are very similar to TMV and with the latter there are several strains so the symptoms aren 't always the same. But I've found that you're probably be going to be preaching to the choir when it comes to making up tobacco preps, which are toxic to some plants and no, without doing a Google search I don't remember which ones, and that's b'c most will come back and say their father or grandfather used it and it's great as a pesticde. So be it. ( smile) Carolyn