Fumigation with D‐D or Telone on soils prone to Docking disorder

Abstract

SUMMARYThe liquid fumigants dichloropropane‐dichloropropene mixture (D‐D) or dichloropropenes (Telone), when applied at 64 or 43 1/ha respectively in bands 15–20 cm below the lines of the crop rows before sugar beet was sown on land with a history of Docking disorder, often led to appreciable increases in sugar yield; this occurred even in seasons that were not conducive to the development of the disorder, particularly in East Anglia. Treatment often increased yield economically but the crop response could not be forecast at the time of fumigant application. The effect of fumigation in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire was more variable, sometimes being favourable and occasionally unfavourable, whilst the same treatment in Nottinghamshire seldom increased and sometimes decreased the yield of sugar.Yields of barley grain in the years following the sugar‐beet crops in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire were not increased by the band application of nematicide but were sometimes increased by it when applied overall.