Rhizomes develop from the crowns of yellow nutsedge (Cyperus esculentus L.) shoots and the tips transform into shoots or tubers. Transformation of primary rhizomes developed by the original shoot of a plant is a valid index of plant response to treatment when compared with the transformation of all rhizomes (primary, secondary, tertiary, and others), developed by a plant under treatment.

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, var. RS-610) grown under field conditions during 1965 to 1967 on three soils in the High Plains of west Texas, was treated at different stages of plant growth with 2-chloro-4-(ethylamino)-6-(isopropylamino)s-triazine (atrazine). Maximum injury was caused by supplemental sprinkler irrigation. Tolerance of grain sorghum to atrazine increased as height of sorghum plants increased. Treatments on 1 and 3-inch sorghum reduced grain yields significantly, but plants treated when 6 inches or more in height produced yields similar to hand-weeded plots, except on Brownfield loamy sand where yields were reduced even at ½ lb/A. Similar trends were observed in 1966 with a forage sorghum (Lindsey 101F). However, yield reductions occurred only when atrazine was applied at 2 and 4 lb/A to sorghum plants I inch tall. Results show that atrazine can be used effectively and safely for weed control in sorghum grown on fine sandy loam or heavier soils in the southern High Plains, providing the crop is at least 6 inches tall when treated.

The degradation kinetics of propylene glycol butyl ether (hereafter referred to as PGBE) ester of 2-(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy) propionic acid (silvex) and the persistence of silvex in water and sediment were studied under impounded conditions. PGBE ester of silvex was applied to the surface of three ponds at the rate of 9 kg/ha/A. Water and sediment samples were collected at 4, 12, 24, and 48 hr after treatment and were extracted for PGBE ester of silvex immediately after collection. The concentrations of PGBE ester of silvex and silvex present in the water and sediment samples were determined by gas chromatography. Physico-chemical and mineralogical characteristics of the sediment samples collected prior to treatment were determined. The hydrolysis of PGBE ester of silvex to silvex obeyed first order reaction kinetics, the specific reaction rate constants for the three ponds being 0.09 hr−1, 0.10 hr−1, and 0.14 hr−1. Fifty percent hydrolysis of PGBE ester of silvex occurred in 5 to 8 hr, 90% hydrolysis occurred in 16 to 24 hr, and 99% hydrolysis occurred in 33 to 49 hr. The concentration of silvex in water initially increased, but decreased to zero by the end of 3 weeks. Adsorption of both the PGBE ester of silvex and silvex appeared to occur on the sediment; essentially complete disappearance of both occurred by the fifth week following treatment. Under laboratory conditions, silvex adsorption by the sediments conformed to the Freundlich adsorption equation.

The effects of 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde O-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)oxime (hereinafter referred to as C-9122), 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzonitrile (bromoxynil), 3,5-dibromo-4-hydroxybenzaldoxime (hereinafter referred to as bromoxime), and 2,4-dinitrophenol (hereinafter referred to as DNP) on phosphorylation and electron transport were measured in mitochondria isolated from white potato tubers (Solarium tuberosum L.) and in chloroplasts from spinach leaves (Spinacia oleracea L.). Mitochondrial oxygen utilization was monitored polarographically. All four chemicals stimulated ADP-limited oxygen utilization, inhibited non-ADP-limited oxygen uptake, and relieved oligomycin-inhibited oxygen uptake. C-9122 produced responses at lower molar concentrations than did bromoxynil, bromoxime, and DNP. The I50 value for inhibition of state 3 respiration by C-9122 was 2.7 × 10−6 M.

In chloroplasts, C-9122, bromoxime, and DNP inhibited photoreduction and coupled photophosphorylation with water as the electron donor, and with ferricyanide and NADP as electron acceptors. Cyclic photophosphorylation, with phenazine methosulfate as the electron mediator under an argon gas phase, also was inhibited. With ascorbate-2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (hereinafter referred to as DPIP) as the electron donor, phosphorylation coupled to NADP reduction was inhibited, but not the reduction of NADP. C-9122 was the strongest inhibitor, and bromoxime was the weakest inhibitor of the several reactions. The I50 value for inhibition of the coupled ferricyanide reduction was 4.6 × 10−6 M for C-9122. C-9122 appeared to act in two different ways by (a) inhibiting electron transport at or near photosystem II and the oxygen evolution pathway, and (b) interfering with energy transfer and the generation of ATP. Bromoxynil inhibited photoreduction and photophosphorylation reactions in which water served as the electron donor; but it was a very poor inhibitor of both cyclic photophosphorylation, and photophosphorylation coupled to NADP reduction with ascorbate-DPIP serving as the electron donor. Because of the pivotal role of ATP in cellular metabolism, it is conceivable that interference with ATP generation could be a major (but not necessarily the only) mechanism through which the herbicidal activity of C-9122 is expressed.