The Comparative Toxicity of Vineyard Pesticides to Wine Yeasts

Abstract

The comparative toxicity of 25 vineyard pesticides (14 fungicides, 7 insecticides and 4 herbicides) at eight concentrations (0, 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/L) on the growth of wine yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains Montrachet and Steinberg) was assessed using the paper disc-agar diffusion technique. Dinocap was the most potent fungicide, with captan, mancozeb and maneb also being very toxic. The yeast strains were less sensitive to benomyl, copper oxychloride, iprodione, procymidone, triadimefon, triforine, vinclozolin and zineb. Dicofol was a particularly toxic insecticide, with the herbicides diuron and 2,2-dichloropropionic acid being slightly toxic. The remaining fungicides (copper sulfate and sulfur), herbicides (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and simazine) and insecticides (dieldrin, lindane, maldison, methiocarb, mevinphos and rotenone) were non toxic at the concentrations and with the assay conditions used.