THE COPPER LEVEL DEPENDENCE IN VEGETABLE CROPS AT PESTICIDE TREATMENT

Pesticides containing copper ale used on wide range in vegetable produ ction, especially in the open field. Copper has an excellent fungicida l effect against diseases of tomato, pepper, onion and in practical us e it is essential as bactericide in the above mentioned crops. The fun gicides containing copper are freely available on the market, they are not expensive and widely used without any special knowledge. They are popular in simple home gardens as well as in hi-tech vegetable produc tion and are used even in all forms of ''bio'' culture. From the other side, copper can be toxic. The allowable level is 10 mg Cu/kg product . This concentration may be found after the first treatment and it inc reases after every further application. In our experiments the copper absorbancy and accumulation has been investigated at different pestici de doses and under different experimental conditions. The analytical m easurements, the sample preparation; the instrument calibration have b een made by the Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer at the Departm ent of Chemistry of the University of Horticulture and Food Industry.