Weed control in sweet potatoes with N-1 naphthyl phthalamic acid

Since the cultivation of crops by man, weeds have been a problem. Every year farmers and gardeners are confronted with the eradication or control of these pests with a considerable coat for labor. Weeds reduce yields and quality, which in turn results in less profitable enterprises. Cultivation is the principal method of controlling weeds, but with the rising costs of labor the problem is increasingly serious. This has encouraged a search for methods of controlling weeds other than the usual cultural practices. In the vegetable field, 2,4 D has been used effectively on sweet com and asparagus (1,11), but it seldom eliminates the need for all cultivation. Oils like Stoddard Solvent have been used successfully in weeding carrots (11,19,23). A chemical which has been used in controlling weeds in onions is potassium cyanate (6,8,19). No chemical has provided entirely satisfactory weed control for our vegetables. This includes the sweet potato which has gone almost completely uninvestigated as far as chemical weed controls are concerned. The sweet potato is the second most important vegetable crop in the nation. In Tennessee and in the South, it ranks first. The labor required per acre to grow sweet potatoes ranks high when compared to many of our leading crops. It is important, therefore, that a practical and satisfactory method be found for the control of weeds for this crop.

One of the chemicals showing some possible merit is N-1 Naphthyl Phthalamic Acid. These experiments were set up to determine whether N-1 Naphthyl Phthalamic Acid was practical for weed control in sweet potato production.