Glyphosate residues - David

Thanks. It looks like the article isn't on line. Any chance you could give me the references?

David

while I have been hanging out in rec.gardens i noticed this question. I ha= ven't researched glyphosate fate in soils directly but I have read some of = the literature. glyposate is essentially a phosphonated amino acid. There = are many bacterial strains that can completely degrade glyphosate to CO2, p= hosphate and amino acid. With the right genes bacteria eat glyphosate very = well, as a carbon and energy source, as a P source and as an N source. How= ever, in a soil that has not been previously exposed to glyphosate, it will= take weeks to months to develop a microbial population that degrades glyph= osate. Subsequent applications were found to be degraded quite rapidly and = completely, within a week, IIRC.

Also I was under the impression that glyphosate is an effective plant kille= r only in foliar application, but I may be wrong.

Stuart

PS: Best luck to the Aussies on the list in the threatened zones.

So whether significant glyphosate would remain in a particular soil would d= epend

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- show quoted text - while I have been hanging out in rec.gardens i noticed this question. I ha= ven't researched glyphosate fate in soils directly but I have read some of = the literature. glyposate is essentially a phosphonated amino acid. There = are many bacterial strains that can completely degrade glyphosate to CO2, p= hosphate and amino acid. With the right genes bacteria eat glyphosate very = well, as a carbon and energy source, as a P source and as an N source. How= ever, in a soil that has not been previously exposed to glyphosate, it will= take weeks to months to develop a microbial population that degrades glyph= osate. Subsequent applications were found to be degraded quite rapidly and = completely, within a week, IIRC.

So whether significant glyphosate would remain in a particular soil would d= epend on whether the soil had been exposed to glyphosate previously. If it= had (within a few years), the soil bacterial population probably would hav= e sufficient copies of the glyphosate degradation pathway (only a couple ge= nes) to degrade the chemical to undetectable.

Also I was under the impression that glyphosate is an effective plant kille= r only in foliar application, but I may be wrong.

Stuart

PS: Best luck to the Aussies on the list in the threatened zones.