Penn and Cord's Garden
  • Home
  • Penn's Blog
  • Classes/Consultations
  • Greenhouses
    • Order Greenhouse Plans!
    • Latest Greenhouses
    • Student Greenhouse Projects
    • Colorado College Greenhouse
  • Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds
    • More Wild Mountain Seed
    • Seed Saving
  • Contact Us
    • Newsletter
    • The Cool List >
      • The Book List
      • Penn's Tomato Critique
    • About Us
  • Store
  • Letter of Agreement

Tomatoes and Tobacco

2/14/2013

14 Comments

 
Picture
If you want to get succulent home-grown tomatoes like these - you need to keep tobacco far away from your plants, your greenhouse, your baby starts - all of it.  Tobacco can give tomatoes the disease Tobacco Mosaic Virus (ToMV).  If you chew or are a smoker of tobacco - commercial cig's or organic, do not smoke around your tomatoes and do not touch them without washing your hands thoroughly with soap and water.  
When people come to tour I am very clear about smokers going in my greenhouses - I even threaten to tackle them if they think of touching the door jam.  God forbid a smoker who hangs out around the farmer's market - strange huh - but I have no problem asking them to smoke elsewhere - only for the sake of the tomatoes.

One study I read about showed Tobacco Mosaic Virus present in 40% of commercial tobacco - and that was in the 80's.

The disease can also be spread by many common plants like marigold, petunia, hollyhock and zinnia.  Also nightshades and mints - and a whole slew of others.  5 different kinds of aphids can carry the disease too.
Sometimes the disease can take them out slowly - sometimes quickly - spreading from plant to plant.  Often people don't recognize the link or what is happening to their slowly degrading tomato plants. The disease can live in the soil and plant debris so if you think you've had it - clean up and remove debris instead of composting it.  Grow tomatoes somewhere new and let that area rest.

Rodale's Encyclopedia of Natural Insect & Disease Control is an excellent resource for the home gardener.  I learn so much every time I crack it open.
If you have no choice and the smoker in your life won't keep out of the greenhouse or garden - you may have better luck with a hybrid bred to resist this disease.  When you look at hybrid tomatoes - you often see a bunch of letters after the name - like VFT or others.  "T", or "TMV" is for Tobacco Mosaic Virus and it is your clue that that tomato is resistant.  These would not be good choices for saving seeds of course.  

TMV:
"Leaves may have light and dark green mottling, and at colder temperatures may become spindly.  Fruit may ripen unevenly and develop brown spots."

Picture
Nicotiana alata

Growing Nicotiana - Tobacco

I have been growing, studying and teaching tomatoes for 20 years.  I know this pretty well - and learned it early on from a friend whose husband wouldn't ask his friend to not smoke in their house - yes, this was 20 years ago - and it affected one tomato and then all the rest as well.  She  learned the hard way.  I even had a guy come and buy tomato plants from me - a chain smoker to be sure and he did not believe me.  So he set up my high-altitude, organically raised perfect tomato starts in the garage and smoked all over them - killing them one by one.  He came back with a cheerful, yellow smile to exclaim - "Hell if you weren't right!"  I have never sold him tomatoes again - and probably never will.  AS IF!  
BUT, after all of my protection and teaching I too, can be totally dumb.  I also teach companion planting, integration of growing and also fill my large containers with food, herbs and flowers, always have, always will.  
So - right next to the beautiful iron gate by the entrance to my garden sit two half whiskey barrels - perfect for deep planting.  That year I started with a tumbling tomato, and lots of herbs and flowers to integrate with it.  Oh yeah, I love to grow Nicotiana - (tobacco) for it's magnificently fragrant white flowers.  They come in other colors but the white is the most ethereal.  A perfect moonlight flower and the scent hits you like a ton of bricks at the gate - kapow!!!  I love this plant. I think of it as Nicotiana - not tobacco.  I think of it as a beautiful garden flower that the flying creatures love.  And so - smart me - I planted them together - Nicotiana for beauty, fragrance and the moon and the tumbling tomatoes coming right over the side of the whiskey barrel for snacking and beauty.  Sigh.
Not good.  It took me a while too - wondering what was wrong with this poor tomato.  Over time, leaf mottling began to occur, the plant was wilted and strange looking - it was trying so hard but it just couldn't do it.
And then I hit myself in the head - "Tobacco!" I yelled, "Cord, you will not believe what I did."
The moral of the story is - do not plant nicotine around your tomatoes - they don't like it.  I know Nicotine was sometimes used as a powerful insecticide in the past, but it is not something I would ever mess around with.  Besides, there are many better ways to deal with bugs and disease than a hard-core drug like Nicotine.
I grow it still - in it's own pot - away from the tomatoes and enjoy the white trumpets opening in the evening and blasting me and my last cup of tea for the day into heaven.

Here's a couple of hybrids - yes, me, heirloom grower, I had to look them up - for tobacco smokers.  I don't have any experience with these varieties but hope they will work for you if you have been having trouble with tomatoes and tobacco.  This is not a sure thing - but it could help.  Please look them up yourself to see if they are appropriate for your climate and season length. These are all chosen quickly from a catalog - there are many more to choose from - this is just to get you started.
Bush Early Girl VFFNT Hybrid
Jetsetter VFFNTA Hybrid
Ball's Beefsteak VFFT Hybrid
Big Beef VFFNTA Hybrid
Celebrity VFFNTA Hybrid
Champion II VFNT Hybrid
Cobra VFT Hybrid
Super Marzano VFNT Hybrid
Sweet Treats FFT Hybrid
Sweet Million FNT Hybrid
Sunsugar FT Hybrid

Picture
Nicotiana in mixed planters - but not with tomatoes!
Picture
Healthy tomatoes in Cord's winter greenhouse.
Picture
Ahhhhhh......
14 Comments

Our Hortie Trip North

2/9/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
Harlequin Gardens geo-thermal greenhouse.
Cord and I had a big weekend adventure north recently and it was fun, fun, fun.  Our first stop was a consultation in Boulder with a nice couple trying to make their all-glazed little greenhouse work for them.  We shared lots of information and left them excited to get started.  
The next stop was a place we've wanted to go for a long time - Harlequin Gardens in Boulder.  Mikl and Eve Brawner run this nursery using this subterranean - geo-thermal greenhouse - no fuel bill of course.  And of course - we love any smart greenhouse - not just our design - but others that work fuel-less as well.  
They grow lots of natives, lots of water-wise plants and are practicing sustainability everywhere you look.  Worm compost is making under the benches - leaves are fed to worms - and everytime the flats above them are watered - it moistens the piles underneath.  At the end of the season Mikl applies it to the gardens and then starts again.  Cord and Mikl had a great time talking greenhouse talk.  Cord is currently designing greenhouses so he likes to learn about other sustainable designs.  They had a great time while Eve showed me around to all of the established gardens there.  I loved the site - very real - with high-quality plants.

Picture
Picture

BBB Seed - Beauty Beyond Belief/Bounty Beyond Belief/Botanicals Beyond Belief

Picture
Cord and our friend Mike Wade at BBB.
Picture
Cord and Mike Wade at BBB Seed - woohoo!  We love being around seeds - they throb with life!  They are wildflower specialists but they also have a vegetable line - all heirloom and mostly organic.  
We met Mike at Seed School and also know his daughter so we really like this company.  BBB stands for Beauty Beyond Belief - an old Boulder wildflower seed company and the new vegetable line - Bounty Beyond Belief - and new - Botanicals Beyond Belief - very nice.  
It was fun to hang out with the Head Honcho himself - check them out at:       http://www.bbbseed.com/

On To Panayoti's

Picture
What a blast - a 'cheesball' picture to make us laugh!
Picture
Panayoti and Jan are our wonderful friends and hosts when we come to teach in Denver.  They won't be stopped - they insist we come and we absolutely love that.
They are the most wonderful hosts - and we laugh and laugh. 
We brought last-minute friend's so Panayoti put on some more chops - they are amazing and it is the most comfortable place to stay.  
We arrived after our wild day in Boulder - and after a huge feast and lots of great conversation with the world travelers - we crashed - ready to teach in the morning.
Thank you - as always you two - we have a blast - hee hee.

We credit Panayoti for discovering us - and Jan was our first friend at DBG.  What fun.

Teaching at Denver Botanic Gardens

Picture
My Big Ol' Man - teaching Sustainable Greenhouse Design.
Picture
Lots of students!

And For Added Fun...

Picture
In beautiful Gates Hall.
Picture
They had it loaded so fast - I could barely get a picture.
Our son Max to the rescue.  "Max, hook up the flat bed, load the ramps, chains and tools and drive to Denver and rescue us."  "Okay."  As he hung up the phone Cord said, "It's great having a grown man for a son!"  It's only a 44' rig all hooked up plus he had to hook it up - make sure the lights work, find a spare, amongst other things - like he's 18.  Of course he did it all - no problem.  

Picture
Chaining it down.
Picture
Loading the ramps while Cord chains the back.
I'd rather break down in the wilderness than in the city any day. At least then, I'd know what to do.  The best option was Max bringing us the ability to get it home to our awesome mechanic - Paul Austin - of Austin Automotive.  
We took Max out to dinner on the way home and then stopped in Canon City after dark and dropped the car and it's broken fuel pump - off at the mechanic.  But still - the trip was great, the students were wonderful - and we made many great connections.  
We are planning the next greenhouse class in Kittredge, Co - coming up next month.  Until then, we are starting seeds like crazy and planning the 2013 season.  Be back soon with more tomato talk.
1 Comment

    Author

    Penn Parmenter is a high altitude gardener, seedswoman and student of the earth.  She is married to Cord Parmenter - an awesome gardener, gorgeous man and a master blacksmith. Together they own and run a sustainable greenhouse design company, Smart Greenhouses LLC and Penn grows seed for her seed business, Miss Penn's Mountain Seeds.  She is a mother of three sons and an outdoorswoman.  Penn forages wild food, hunts big game, fishes, preserves, maintains a huge organic forest garden and occasionally makes dinner.  At home you can find her in her greenhouses as well as in the wilderness - nose to the ground, butt in the air, trying to identify Colorado natives.    

    Archives

    November 2020
    January 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2018
    January 2018
    March 2017
    January 2017
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    March 2014
    October 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly