The persistence of herbicides applied in vineyards has become a concern in
recent years due to their wide use. Investigations into the fate of herbici
des in a vineyard in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, have been directe
d towards the dissipation of herbicides in soil and on grapes. Concentratio
ns of the herbicides, norflurazon, oxadiazon, and oxyfluorfen in soil were
monitored following their application in the vineyard. With the exception o
f oxyfluorfen, dissipation of these herbicides in the vineyard soil was cha
racterised by fast initial loss followed by slow degradation. For oxyfluorf
en the dissipation was slow throughout the period of the study. The half-li
fe for norflurazon in surface soils varied from 50 days in 1996 to 22 days
in 1997 while that for trifluralin was 27 days in 1996 and 30 days in 1997.
Oxyfluorfen had a very low dissipation rate with a half-life of 119 days.
Oxadiazon had a relatively short half-life of 14 days. Dissipation of the h
erbicide residues on grapes in the Roseworthy campus vineyard showed that t
rifluralin and oxyfluorfen were not detected 4 days after treatment, while
norflurazon and oxadiazon remained on grapes I month after treatment. This
study showed that the dissipation of herbicides in soil and on grapes was d
ependent on the physicochemical properties of the herbicides and environmen
tal conditions. The use of these relatively persistent herbicides in vineya
rds has the potential to harm vines and to contaminate grapes and the wine
made from them. (C)2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.