USDA Nearly Ready to License Bioherbicide

WASHINGTON - Jul 6/01 - STAT -- Researchers with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have come up with a bioherbicide useful for controlling annual morning glories and other broad-leaved weeds.

Use of the bioherbicide could offer a nature-based alternative to conventional chemical controls and the risks associated with applying them, such as drift beyond crop fields and groundwater contamination, note ARS plant pathologist Norman Schaad and retired ARS researcher Shaw-Ming Yang.

One bioherbicide ingredient is the saprophytic fungus Myrothecium verrucaria. In nature, it survives by absorbing nutrients from decaying plant matter. When mixed with oil, however, it can kill many common dicot weed species, including annual morning glories, bermuda grass, pigweed and bindweed.

In early greenhouse studies, Yang showed that oil serves as both an emulsifier that retains moisture and a synergist that enables the fungus to kill weeds. Neither M. verrucaria or oil alone will damage plants, so natural movement of the fungus to crops or other nontarget plants isn’t likely.

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