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Mercury residues in potatoes following application of a foliar spray containing phenylmercury chloride
Author(s) -
Smart N. A.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740150206
Subject(s) - mercury (programming language) , wettable powder , chloride , acre , chemistry , growing season , fungicide , horticulture , flesh , environmental chemistry , food science , pesticide , botany , agronomy , biology , organic chemistry , computer science , programming language
A fungicide containing phenylmercury chloride (o.6% w/w mercury) and copper oxychloride was sprayed on to potato foliage at the normal rate of 3 lb. formulated wettable powder/100 gal./acre. Four and eight applications were made at 7–10‐day intervals although it is normal practice in this country to make not more than four applications. In the flesh of potatoes 0.02 p.p.m. of mercury was found half‐way through the growing season after four applications and 0.03 p.p.m. at the end of the growing season, whether four or eight sprays had been put on. Similar residues were found in the peel. Unsprayed controls contained less than 0.005 p.p.m. of mercury. Potatoes grown on ground where phenylmercury chloride had been sprayed the previous year were not contaminated. Pot experiments suggested that traces of mercury compounds can be both translocated from the foliage and taken up from soil into tubers.