posted on March 16, 2004 11:28:02 AM new
I use Miracle Gro once in a while if something needs a quick shot in the arm, but mostly rely on the composted chicken, sheep and goat manure we have in abundance....best secret? Put a double pinch of Copenhagen Snuff in the hole before you plant your tomatoes to keep the horn worms away...It doesn't make any scientific sense, tomatoes and tobacco are both from the same plant family, and the tomato horn worm is actually a tobacco horn worm, but I swear it works, go figure...
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posted on March 16, 2004 12:36:16 PM new
I'm pretty lucky for living in the city. My garden grows without much help at all and the soil is pretty rich. I have a problem with slugs, though. They make a terrible mess out of my Lazy Susans and my Russian Sage. I tried the commercial products for getting rid of them and even the beer trick, but nothing seems to help short of dashing them with salt. The Butterfly Bush I bought three years ago was 3" high when I bought it and now it's well over 6' tall.
We're in the middle of a nasty blizzard right now, so I'm hoping the bush survives it. It not so much the cold, but the wind I'm worried about. Ah, typical March on the northcoast.
posted on March 16, 2004 12:52:14 PM new
wow snuff never even heard of that before, will have to give that a try...
Cheryl set up some saucers of beer or cut the top off a 2 liter bottle and place the cap end the opening... slugs crawl in and can't get out, like a funnel going into the bottle.
posted on March 16, 2004 01:11:28 PM new
Nicotine is a contact poision any tobacco can be steeped in water, mix the juice with dish soap and spray directly on the plant. Very little is needed to do the job, like a tablespoon of juice in a spray bottle! In addition, will kill chiggers that have burrowed under your skin in quick order and you too if you get to much in your system!
posted on March 16, 2004 02:14:30 PM new
Do you make like a tea out of the tobacco or a thick concoction? Twelve, I tried the beer thing. It got too expensive. Besides, why waste a good beer?
posted on March 16, 2004 02:36:18 PM new
Yes, tea would be accurate description. Search the web, I know that there are several uses for nicoine in the garden and the lawn. It was commercial used years ago under the name BlackLeaf 40, the active ingredient being nicotine. One warning if you steep this in a jar, do not store with lid on the jar; or in due time a mild explosion will occur. Keep away from the little ones!!
posted on March 16, 2004 07:33:59 PM new
We always have a few rows of a tobacco that is locally called Punche...I grow it now mostly for sentimental reasons, all the old men used to smoke it here...I had it ID'd at the county extension agent's, and it's Nicotiana Rustica...along with smoking it, I remember my grandfather and grandmother used to crumble it into a jar and make a spray for the garden. It makes really beautiful flowers and gets about 4 feet tall, I'll try to post a pic later in the summer. Anyway, here's what I don't get about tomatoes...supposedly ALL forms of commercial tobacco can carry a virus called Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Plant breeders have gone to great lengths to breed tomato varieties that are resistant to TMV, among other things. Garden books will always tell you not to ever use tobacco, whether you smoke or chew, when you're in the garden. If you have tomatoes, especially heirloom varieties that aren't TMV resistant, they always recommend washing your hands before you go to the garden...yet here I go every year putting Cope into the planting hole of all of my tomatoes to keep away the worms, worms which supposedly LIKE tobacco! Maybe it's one of those hole-istic things
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posted on March 16, 2004 11:19:58 PM new
They might not like it in the refined version such as snuff or other tobacco products. The nicotine level or concentrated amount ingested might be greater in the dry refined leaf and might be toxic to them, where as the plant when ingested in the live state doesn't present a toxic level. Perhaps some of the chemicals present in refined tobacco are a deterrent to the worm.
Give thought to the idea that horn worms are actually after the buzz offered by the tobacco.
I am not positive but I think the transmission of the TMV is airborne, like if one was to burn a live plant, not positive though. I have never had a problem with tobacco around tomatoes of all varieties, so go figure!
posted on March 17, 2004 05:43:58 AM new
Tobacco mosaic virus is interesting stuff. There are also a lot of other viruses (please don't argue about spelling it virii) such as the tobacco necrosis virus that attack the tobacco plant - although they usually also go for cucumbers and tomatoes too. The stuff you raise Prof is also called Aztec tobacco.
It is surprising to me that someone who has lost a loved one to tobacco has not spent the funds to produce such a virus in mass and use it to deny the industry commercial acreage. The various strains and precipitation methods are quite easy to find out. It would be done for a few $100k and would be more effective and final than silly TV ads or spraying herbicides like the antidrug people do.
posted on March 17, 2004 09:16:04 AM new
gravid, I'd expect the commercial tobacco strains to be highly TMV resistant, wouldn't you?
regarding the Aztec Tobacco, I've heard that before...but I've noticed big differences in Nicotiana Rusticas depending upon the locale where they grow...probably due to local landraces developing from generations of seed savers like my family...the local pueblo indian people nearby for example, grow their own variety for ceremonies and won't smoke the spanish Punche, they claim it's different..yet theirs is a Rustica variety too....
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