VIEW ARTICLE

Absorption and Movement of Benomyl into Cotton Bolls and Control of Boll Rot. R. B. Hine, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721; L. J. Ashworth, Jr.(2), A. O. Paulus(3), and J. L. McMeans(4). (2)Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Berkeley, 94720; (3)Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside 92507; and (4)Department of Plant Pathology, Crops Research Division, ARS, USDA, Phoenix, Arizona, 85000. Phytopathology 61:1134-1136. Accepted for publication 26 April 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-1134.

In laboratory studies, peduncles of detached, immature cotton bolls did not absorb and translocate sufficient concentrations of benomyl from aqueous suspensions to protect locules from infection by Aspergillus flavus. The chemical was not detectable by direct assay or chloroform extracts in carpel tissue, lint, seed coat, or embryo tissue. When detached bolls were shaken in benomyl suspensions, some absorption occurred, primarily through bract tissue. Benomyl formulated in glycerine, Volck oil, Puregrow Supreme 90 oil, or DuPont Surfactant F or Colloidal Products R-552 and sprayed on plants in the greenhouse and in the field was not detectable in lint, seed coat, or embryo tissue. Benomyl did not control boll rot caused by A. flavus and other fungi in field plots at El Centro and Brawley, Calif. Benomyl has not been detected in bolls from plants growing in soil containing as high as 500 µg/g (active) air-dry, soil weight basis.