ABSTRACT
Numerous dicotyledon and monocotyledon plants are classified as vegetables, including edible (vegetable) legumes, crucifers, cucurbits, solanaceous crops, composites, miscellaneous root crops, umbellifers, spinach, okra, and asparagus. Pesticides used on vegetables include fungicides, bactericides, nematicides, insecticides, herbicides, broad-spectrum soil fumigants, and various combinations of two or more of these. Because most vegetables are high-yielding, high-value crops with rigorous standards for quality, pesticide input is usually greater than on lower value crops. One of the earliest reports of the beneficial effects of an herbicide on a disease was by Richardson in Canada. Very little research has been done on the nontarget effects of herbicides, nematicides, or insecticides on foliage diseases. Interactions of new pesticides and different formulations of current pesticides with diseases, both detrimental and beneficial, will probably continue to occur in vegetables. Scientists and growers will have to be alert to potential problems or opportunities as pesticide usage, cultivars, and cultural practices continually change in field and greenhouse agricultural production.
