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Principles of insecticide action on mushroom cropping: incorporation into casing
Author(s) -
WYATT I. J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1978.tb00683.x
Subject(s) - biology , mushroom , diazinon , toxicology , zoology , agronomy , pesticide , botany
SUMMARY The incorporation of organophosphorous insecticides into the casing layer of mushroom beds reduces the numbers of mushrooms, according to a logistic relationship with log 10 (dose). The cumulative numbers at any flush are affected in this way, and the response of individual flushes may, therefore, be represented by the difference between two logistic curves. This explains the observed increases in numbers in the second and third flushes following diazinon treatment and in the fourth following thionazin, pirimiphos‐methyl and pirimiphos‐ethyl. No compensation in numbers followed chlorfenvinphos treatment. This decreasing response pattern reflected the increasing residual action of the insecticides. Mushroom size was inversely related to numbers but even when numbers in any flush were unaffected by the treatment, there was usually an increase in size. Thus yield increases occurred in most flushes at commercial concentrations of four insecticides (thionazin compensated only in the fourth flush) and total yields were increased by 8 to 13%.