Arsenic Toxicity in Red Pine and the Persistence of Arsenic in Nursery Soils
Small amounts of arsenic occur in all soils and plants, but use of arsenic-bearing insecticides in earlier years and of arsenical herbicides recently has often increased soil and plant contents. Since arsenic is only slowly lost through leaching or cropping, additions accumulate, occasionally to the point of plant injury (1, 7). Studies of such injury demonstrate that the likelihood and severity of growth reductions are "a function of the kind of soil, the amount of arsenic present, and the kind of plant" (7), making simple generalizations impossible. New materials have long displaced arsenical insecticides, and the history of their use is often forgotten even where large quantities were applied. Recently we investigated an unexplained tipburn of red pine (Pinus resionsa Ait.) at the Lowville, N.Y. State Forest Nursery and found that its cause lay about 35 years in the past, with applications of arsenic to control white grubs.
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Author(s): Earl L. Stone, Jr., T. Greweling
Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Volume 22, Number 1 (1971)
Volume: 22
Number: 1
