Being old as dirt myself, And watching my father in the garden, Back before all the chemical crap, He would fire up the compost pile with 1/4 bottle of beer, you can drink the rest. 1/4 cup ammonia,put in two gallons of water and pour on compost pile. Also and all purpose Bug Repellent tonic, was 1 cup dish soap,Ivory please. 1 cup listerine mouth wash. 1 cup chewing tobacco juice, made by putting a plug of chewing tobacco in a gallon of water, and pouring 1 cup of it for the bug repellent. then you put this in 20 gallons of water and spray, I promise you it works, and can go on veg, and fruit trees, My dad only used chewing tobacco soak in water for spraying. and we had a team of horses who every morn. had to have there bite of chewing tobacco. they never got sick, My grand father was in Calvery, and that was what they did for all there horses,for worms and such. With love Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), July 17, 2001

Answers

Irene,

I have heard a lot of uses for tobacco as a pest control also from my parents and grandparents. Now I'm told that even touching a tomato plant if you chew or smoke can cause an ifection of mosaic blight. I wonder why it didn't affect the plants back then? What are your thoughts on this? Could heirloom tomato seeds be the answer?

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 17, 2001.

Ours seems to thrive totally neglected. We've named it "Wiggly Field"!

-- Sandy Davis (smd2@netzero.net), July 17, 2001.

Irene,you ought to write a book so that knowledge doesn't get lost! :)

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), July 17, 2001.

I hear ya on the beer. We've always thrown the wine making by products in the compost and it works fine too (all those yeasts etc).

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), July 17, 2001.

Jay, I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if maybe the ivory or the listerine would deter the virus, maybe by making the tobacco not so harmful to the tomato plants? Thanks Irene for the good tips!

-- Annie (mistletoe@kconline.com), July 17, 2001.

Chewing tobacco and tobacco used in cigars and pipes go through extra fermentation(2 to 3 more than cigarettes). During the 3rd and 4th stages the piles of tobacco can reach around 109 degrees. That kills most of the fungus and harmful bacteria. Cigarette tobacco is hung dry and fermented only one time(not every manufacturer is the same). I think that's one of the reasons why chewing tobacco is good for composting. Beer and Wine are just good for everything (in moderation).

Just my two cents. :)

-- Sean (providencia.geo@yahoo.com), February 23, 2002.