SEVEN YEARS´ WORK ON ALTERNATIVES TO METHYL BROMIDE (MB) FOR STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN HUELVA (SPAIN)

The National Project INIA has carried out experiments over seven years at Huelva, Spain, to find short-term alternatives to the use of MB in strawberry produc-tion.
From 1997 to 2001, more than 25 soil fumigant treatments were tested using strawberry cv. ‘Camarosa’ grown under small plastic tunnels.
The results of the four-year trial indicated the following treatments as technically and economically feasible alternatives to MB: 1,3 dichloropropene+chloropicrin (1,3D+pic), chloropicrin alone (pic), dazomet, soil solarization with shank-application of metham sodium (Sol.+MS) and biofumigation (Sol.+Biof.). In 2002-2004, the most promising MB alternatives were used in field scale demonstrations at several locations in Huelva with the same cultivar under standard large plastic tunnels.
Yields during these three years were very similar to MB in the case of 1,3D+pic and pic alone, but dazomet, Sol.+MS and Sol.+Biof. resulted in poorer yields. In 2003-2004, a series of experiments with new chemical alternatives to MB (DMDS, propylene oxide, calcium cyanamide) under LDPE and VIF films was initiated at two locations.
Several of these MB alternatives may represent short-term solutions to the use of MB in strawberry cultivation; how-ever, matters of registration, environmental safety and EU policy on future use of agro-chemicals remain unresolved.

V International Strawberry Symposium

J.J. Medina, L. Miranda, F. Romero, B. De Los Santos, F. Montes, J.M. Vega, J.I. Paez, J. Bascon, C. Soria, J.M. Lopez-Aranda

MB phase-out, short-term alternatives, new soil fumigants, critical uses

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2006.708.33