To achieve this, Larry Sampson limits traffic in the greenhouses to himself and one worker. Both wash their hands whenever they go into the greenhouse. Sampson uses a chlorine hand-washing solution. Milk has been proven to be an excellent method of deactivating the mosaic virus on hands or instruments, says Moore. But any detergent that will remove the gum will remove the virus.
Clipping provides a new challenge.
But that does not prevent spread of the virus. Next year, sanitation in the greenhouse will be even better. He just didn't know how it got there. Tobacco mosaic virus had taken hold in his fields near Rowland, N.C., and the results weren't pretty. Alternating patches of dark and light green, called mottling, disfigured the upper leaves.