In the State of São Paulo, Brazil, sweet potato is nowadays a commercial vegetable crop. When labor is a limiting factor and the mechanical weed control is difficult, the chemical control is desirable. Trifluralin is an efficient herbicide for weed control in several crops. A green house experiment conducted at the Instituto Agronômico, Campinas, determined the selectivity of trifluralin in sweet potato. Increasing doses of trifluralin (0.00; 0.11; 0.22; 0.44; 0.88; 1.76 and 3.52 mg.kg-1 a.i. in weight) were soil incorporated, uniformly. During thirty days, stem cuttings of sweet potatoes were grown in pots. The trial showed that no crop injury occurred by applying 0.11 mg.kg-1 a.i. An exponential injury has been observed at doses upper to 0.22 mg.kg-1 a.i. for the parameters analyzed: stem length, leaf number, dry weight of aerial parts and roots. Trifluralin incorporated in soil was a nonselective herbicide for sweet potato plant.
sweet potato; trifluralin; concentration; herbicide selectivity