G74-113 A Quick Test for Atrazine Carryover (Revised March 1989)

How can you tell if you have atrazine carryover in your fields? Plants grown in soil samples can tell. Residues of atrazine may remain in the soil and affect some susceptible crops the next year. Crops most often affected include soybeans, field beans, sugarbeets, alfalfa, oats, wheat and many broadleaf horticultural crops. Attempts to predict the extent of carryover and damage to sensitive crops the year following atrazine use have been only partially successful. The rate of atrazine disappearance and, therefore, the amount remaining the next year, is affected by soil texture, pH and organic matter content, as well as atrazine application rate and timing, rainfall, and plant growth the previous year. Chemical analyses for atrazine are complicated, expensive and can be made only in specialized laboratories. In addition, results obtained from chemical analyses do not necessarily reveal whether your crop will be injured