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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Volume 21, Number 2 (1970) → A Bioessay Technique for Measuring Herbicide Residuals in Forest Nursery Soils

A Bioessay Technique for Measuring Herbicide Residuals in Forest Nursery Soils

Persistence in soil of many herbicide types now in use, such as the triazines and the substituted ureas, has caused concern. Some herbicides may disappear completely in a month or so, but others may remain at a high level for up to a year or more. The dissipation of a herbicide from any particular soil is accomplished by the following means: (a) Leaching, (b) adsorption on soil or organic particles, (c) volatilization, (d) chemical alteration, (e) plant uptake, (f) photo decomposition, and (g) microbial degradation (2). The rate that these factors act on a particular herbicide is regulated by the herbicide's chemical composition, the soil type, and the environmental conditions of the area. The use of herbicides in forest nurseries has become an important cultural technique; however, the use of any one herbicide year after year, without some knowledge of its potential accumulation in the soil, could cause future problems. A nurseryman should know if a herbicide he uses might accumulate in the soil to the extent that tree seedlings are injured, or the soil made unfit for the more sensitive cover crop species usually rotated between tree crops.


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Author(s): Harry W. Anderson

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Volume 21, Number 2 (1970)

Volume: 21

Number: 2