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WORTH SAVING: Tomato plants have had their share of issues with dicamba over the past six years, but new research from the University of Missouri looks at a way to mitigate the damage with a unique fencing system. Photos by Mindy Ward
At a Glance
- Researchers explore activated charcoal to capture drift particles.
- MU tests four fencing systems, three coated with charcoal to protect tomatoes.
- Tomatoes, grapes and greenhouses could benefit from technology if it works.
Home water filtration systems use activated charcoal to filter out organic compounds that contaminate the water, but can the same approach potentially quench damage to crops from dicamba?
Activated charcoal is used across many industries for its absorption capacity, from fine dust particles to chemicals. “The idea is to see if any of it would bind to the dicamba that could be coming by,” says Reid Smeda, University of Missouri horticulturist.
This summer, with funding from a specialty block grant from Missouri, MU is researching whether activated charcoal-treated fences could potentially reduce or ameliorate some of the damage to specialty crops from dicamba that drifts from an adjacent treated crop.