The next county over has several large commercial tomato farms in it.They will not use a tobacco stick to stake their tomatoes.They say the sticks have bacteria in them that hampers the growth of tomatoes.I know a guy who raises a big garden every year,they can like 30 quarts of tomatoes or something,and he says he thinks there's something to it.He tried it and he said the plants that were staked w new stakes seems to produce more than the ones staked w tobacco sticks.With all things being equal,the only difference was the stick,they produced about half as much more than the others.Take that for what its worth.