About TMV

[LJA]

I'd be if it could manage to survive combustion, and I've never heard of the smoke causing transmission. But if you do smoke or handle tobacco, just to be safe, rinse your hands in that bleach solution after washing them. I'll see if I can find out who to write to get this answered.

[peteMc]

I use Lysol wipes on my hands if I've smoked before handling my plants. However, I've made a habit of not handling the plants themselves much at all, only the pot or hanger. Make much difference? dunno...

If the temps it takes to kill various other nasties for the Health Department standards for kitchens is consistent with TMV, nothing would survive burning. But I'm very curious as to what an official expert might say.

pMc

[LJA]

There's another issue here too. Plant viruses are named after the plants in which they were first discovered. It does not necessarily follow that *all* plants with that name are therefore virused. In fact, virused plants will produce seed which is not infected, even though other methods of propagation (vegetative division, or meristemming for orchids) may transfer the disease.

So how likely is it that *seed-grown* tobacco (all of it grown commercially is seed-grown)--that's been further dried and cured for months--will actually carry a live virus capable of infecting our orchids? Unless there's something vital I'm just ignorant of (which may be), transmission is not very likely, I think. Given the prevalence of, say, cucumbers, spinach, tomatoes, and lettuce, which we handle live and raw, which many people grow in their gardens, and which can all carry any number of mosaic viruses transferable to orchids, I wonder if the TMV scare concerning orchids isn't due in a large part to the "Bad Baggage" we attach because of the health hazards involved in our own tobacco use. I've certainly never heard any warnings about needing to wash your hands after, say, preparing and eating a salad, even though, because the ingredients are raw and we're touching the sap, transmission of a live organism is *far* more likely...