Articles
CONTROL OF FIELD WEEDS BY MICROWAVE RADIATION
Some of these adhere to soil substances and become non-biodegradable while others move through the soil from the place where they were needed to another where they may cause secondary, indirect damage.
Invariably, they reach water courses and in that manner exert their influence at great distances equally on plant, animal and human life.
The use of toxic chemicals for controlling agricultural pests is viewed here as a major conundrum for modern man.
In the present state-of-the-art, agricultural pesticides are a well-recognized hazard to man’s wellbeing but failure to use them will certainly lead to worldwide famine.
This paper portrays a novel approach to the problem.
The application of microwave radiation of 2450 MHz to agricultural lands will kill weed seeds and nematodes without leaving a toxicresiduum in the soil.
Its action is only a direct action on target pests and there is no possibility of secondary, indirect effects as with chemicals.
A selected body of literature describing the use of microwave radiation for inactivating weed seeds and nematodes shows that this can be done effectively and economically.
The use of a mobile microwave generator made field applications possible and showed that weeds could be removed successfully from large areas of land.
It was found that plants, seedlings, rhizomes and seeds could all be inactivated albeit with increasing quantities of energy.
Dry seeds were more resistant to radiation than imbibed, seeds but those allowed to imbibe for only one-half to one hour were more susceptible than those allowed to imbibe for longer times.
This implies a complex relationship between water content and sensitivity to radiation at 2450 MHz.
The effect of radiation on populations of bacteria and fungi in the soil was imperceptible.
Sufficient 2450 MHz radiation to destroy a majority of weed plants in situ in the soil had no measurable effect on nitrogen fixation or nitrification reactions.
The mechanism by which microwave radiations cause damage to living things was determined using bacteria as the experimental organism.