Tomato Tolerance and Pest Control Following Fumigation with Different Ratios of Dimethyl Disulfide and Chloropicrin.

BACKGROUND: The phaseout of methyl bromide (MeBr) continues to stimulate research into the use of other soil fumigants for controlling soilborne diseases and weeds. This research evaluated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) tolerance, weed emergence and the recovery of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL) inoculum following fumigation with various combination ratios of dimethyl disulfide plus chloropicrin (DMDS + Pic).

RESULTS: DMDS on its own did not effectively control purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus L.) as compared to DMDS + Pic. Control of C. rotundus and fusarium wilt increased with Pic based on weed emergence throughout the growing season and FOL inoculum recovery from soil. In all three growing seasons, 159 kg ha-1 DMDS + 379 kg ha-1 Pic provided season-long control of C. rotundus.

CONCLUSION: This research confirms that formulating DMDS + Pic containing a high percentage of Pic offers an effective alternative to MeBr for tomato production. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.