Elana Avidov,

Nadav Aharonson 

Jaacov Katan

Accelerated degradation of the herbicide diphenamid (N,N-dimethyl-α-phenylbenzeneacetamide) was investigated in Israeli soils. Repeated application of this herbicide in the soil in the laboratory enhanced its degradation, which increased with an increasing number of applications. After the fourth application nearly 100% of the herbicide was degraded within 5 days of incubation, whereas only slight degradation was observed during the first 25 days in a previously untreated soil. Accelerated degradation was also observed in a soil collected from a field with previous diphenamid treatments. Fumigation with methyl bromide or treating the soil with the fungicide fentin acetate (triphenyltin acetate) was effective in decreasing the accelerated degradation of diphenamid, whereas the fungicides TMTD (tetramethylthiuram disulfide) and TBZ [2-(4-thiazolyl)benzimidazole] were only partially effective in inhibiting accelerated degradation. In the laboratory, fentin acetate prevented the degradation of diphenamid applied to previously untreated soil. Several fungi capable of degrading diphenamid were isolated from soils with or without accelerated degradation.