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Mode of Action of Phytotoxic Oils
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2017
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In areas near oil refining centers, as in most of California, petroleum oils are widely used in agriculture. Reference is not made here to the use of petroleum to power and lubricate tractors and other farm machinery, but to its use as an agricultural chemical. There are three typical uses of oils: (1) insecticidal spray oils, (2) various oils as selective and general herbicides, and (3) solvent type oils as carriers for oil soluble agricultural chemicals. In California alone, annually from five to fifteen million gallons of petroleum oil are used for the control of scale, mites, and mealy bug (23). An estimated 10 million gallons of cracked gas oils are used for general weed control on canal banks, road sides, barnyards, and in orchards practicing non-tillage. Much solvent type oil is also used for selective weed control in umbelliferous crops, and for pre-emergence weed control in lettuce, beets, and onions. One large operator alone is using one million gallons annually. Aromatic fractions and fortified heavier oils are used as drying agents on flax, clover, and alfalfa seed crops and as cotton defoliants. DDT and other insecticides are commonly applied as dilute oil emulsions.
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- Copyright © 1954 Weed Science Society of America
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