The persistence in soil of the fungicidal seed dressings captan and thiram

SUMMARY The persistence in soil of captan and thiram was investigated by means of a technique in which the fungicidal content of soil was assayed by incubating plugs of soil containing fungicide on agar plates seeded with spores of Myrothecium verrucaria and measuring the diameter of the zone of fungal inhibition that was produced. When the fungicides were well distributed in soil they showed extremely low persistence, both fungicides having a half‐life of between 1 and 2 days. In contrast, when the fungicides were added to soil in the form of dressings on the surface of glass beads they persisted well in soil, little change from their initial concentration occurring even after 21 days. These results suggest that captan and thiram persist far longer in soil when localized in high concentrations than when uniformly distributed through soil. If a glass bead is regarded as a reasonable simulation of a seed these results help to explain the effectiveness of these fungicides as seed dressings despite their apparently low persistence in soil.