Why you should NOT put out the cigarette in the pots

I want to go a bit out of the editorial line of this blog to write an article in which, first, I am going to explain why you should not put out the cigarette in the pots, and second, what can be done to protect the plants and dissuade smokers from putting out tobacco on the land that our pampered ones have.

And it is that, although what I am going to tell may be obvious, surely there are people who do not know it, and given the importance of the matter, I am going to talk a lot about it.

Why shouldn't you do it?

Well, the shortest and easiest answer to understand is the following: Why do the roots burn?. Simple as that. But why does the plant die? I can't help but feel quite bad when I pass, for example, by a bar with a terrace, where they have put a few flower boxes that end up filling up with extinguished cigarettes.

Although at first it may seem that the roots have not suffered any damage, since the plants appear apparently green and healthy, depending on how big the container is and how long they have been in it, it may take more or less to show obvious symptoms that something is wrong. To understand it a little better I have made this drawing that is very simple but it will help me for what I want to explain:

The plants increase in size as the roots grow too.. That is why it is so important to transplant them when we see that the container has become too small for them; that is, when they have roots growing out of the pot. And, of course, once in their new container, these roots will begin to fill the space they have available.

So, if we put out a cigarette in the soil of a large pot where a plant has been recently transplanted, it is likely that it will not suffer much damage. But If we do it in a small pot, or in one where said plant has been around for a long time, then it will have a hard time. And still, if we have the habit of turning it off in the pots, the size of the pots will not matter: the plants will suffer a lot due to overheating that will occur too close to their roots, and they could die.

And things get complicated if said pot is made of plastic.. Apart from the fact that this is a material that burns quickly, if we are still lucky enough that it remains intact, the root system of the plant is going to burn, because the temperature of the interior, that is, of what is inside of the earth will increase considerably.

Depending on what plant it is, its roots will withstand more or less heat: those of cacti can still withstand 50-55ºC for a short time, those of maples have a hard time if they exceed 30ºC. A lit cigarette, according to the portal Medical Writing, has a temperature of about 800ºC; that is to say, not even the most heat resistant plant would be able to withstand that. For this reason, I repeat, do not put out your cigarette in the soil of your pots if there are one or more plants in them.

What are the damages that cigarettes cause to plants?

If we take into account that the roots are the ones that are responsible for absorbing water and nutrients from the soil so that they can later be transported to the rest of the parts of the plants, such as the branches, leaves and flowers, we can get an idea. what can happen to them when their root system is burning. Exact: they will die. And they can do it pretty fast too.

The leaves will dry up, the flowers will abort, the branches, if any, will spoil., even in certain cases -especially if this occurs in summer- it can kill a pest such as mealybugs, which will take advantage of the plant's weakness to feed on its sap.

Can they be saved?

It depends a lot on how damaged it is. If we see that it is already very dry, that we even scratch with the fingernail or break a small piece of branch and we do not see that it is green, we will not be able to do anything for it. But things change if only one cigarette has gone out: in this case, we will simply have to remove the aforementioned and water with water that is cool (but not cold; that is, around 20ºC).

If a few cigarettes have gone out but the plant continues to keep its green leaves, it is best to remove it from that pot and plant it in a different one with new soil (be careful: we will not remove what is in its roots. In other words: the root ball will remain intact).

What to do so that people do not put out the cigarette in your pots?

Well, I'm not a smoker; in fact I suspect that I have an allergy to tobacco smoke. But what I do think we should do is somehow protect the plants so that people can't put out their cigarettes in the ground. And what can we do? Well for example protect them by putting plastic mesh (on sale here) on said land.

Of course, this alone may not achieve much. So some alternative will have to be offered, such as putting ashtrays, or even a pot with soil but no plants. The latter, for example, I have seen in a bar, and due to the amount of butts there were, it seemed that it worked for them.

So, I hope this article helps plants to be calmer when smokers come home.