Persistence of Dicofol Residues on Cucumber, Cucumis sativus (Linn.)

A supervised field trial was conducted at the Punjab Agricultural university, Ludhiaaa to oasess the residues of dicofol on cucumber, during rabi season, 2006. Three applicattons of dicofol on cucumber at 10 days interval were made @ 138.75 and 277.50 g ai ha⁻¹. The third application of dicofol resulted in the initial deposiis of 1.31 and 2.42 mg kg⁻¹, at the recommended and double the recommended dosages, respectively. About 52–55% of the initial residues dissipated in three days. The half-life values (T_½) of dicofol were worked out to be 1.4 and 1.9 days, respectively, for the recommended and double the recommended dosages. A waiting period of one day has been suggested for the safe consumption of cucumber following application of dicofol at the recommended dosage.