Paper · 2026 · International Journal of Vegetable Science

Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato at different growth stages: injury progression, yield, and fruit residues

Taghi Bararpour; Te Ming Tseng

7
claims
14
verbatim quotes
0
citations
2
research areas
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Open access · cc-by

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an economically important vegetable crop in Mississippi. This study involved two controlled greenhouse trials to investigate how sublethal doses of 2,4-D, simulating drift, affect tomatoes at various developmental stages, vegetative, flowering, and fruiting, as well as to evaluate potential residue accumulation in fruit. ‘Sun Gold,’ a cherry tomato variety, was cultivated in containers and exposed a single time to four reduced concentrations of 2,4-D, each combined with 0.25% nonionic surfactant. Plants in the vegetative phase exhibited the highest sensitivity. At the same time, those in flowering and fruiting stages showed progressively less, with injury severity escalating in correlation with dosage over the 1–4 week period post-application. No fruit development was observed in vegetative-stage plants treated at the 1/16× rate, in contrast to flowering and fruiting-stage plants, which yielded fruit. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, fruit samples were tested, revealing no detectable residues at the flowering stage and an average of 0.1844 μg g−1 in some fruiting-stage samples, substantially below the U.S. permissible limit of 10 ppm. Progeny seedlings showed no visible injury. These findings demonstrate that even low-rate 2,4-D exposure can reduce tomato yield when drift occurs early in growth, though residue levels remain very low.

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Claims 7

Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Plants in the vegetative phase were the most sensitive to low-rate 2,4-D, more than those at flowering and fruiting.

Organ / stage
vegetative phasee0
Treatment
2,4-Dt0
Outcome
sensitivitye0
Direction
higheste0
Comparator
flowering and fruiting stagese1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e0

“Plants in the vegetative phase exhibited the highest sensitivity”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 535–599 · show in text ↑
e1

“those in flowering and fruiting stages showed progressively less, with injury severity escalating in correlation with dosage over the 1–4 week period post-application”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 619–785 · show in text ↑
Associationobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Injury severity escalated with 2,4-D dosage over 1 to 4 weeks after application.

Treatment
dosagee1
Outcome
injury severitye1
Direction
escalatinge1
Qualifier
over the 1–4 week period post-applicatione1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e1

“with injury severity escalating in correlation with dosage over the 1–4 week period post-application”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 685–785 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

No fruit developed on vegetative-stage plants treated at the 1/16× rate, unlike flowering and fruiting-stage plants.

Organ / stage
vegetative-stage plantse2
Treatment
1/16× ratee2
Outcome
fruit developmente2
Comparator
flowering and fruiting-stage plantse2

Not reportedDirection

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e2

“No fruit development was observed in vegetative-stage plants treated at the 1/16× rate, in contrast to flowering and fruiting-stage plants, which yielded fruit”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 787–946 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultno effectmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

No detectable 2,4-D residues were found in fruit at the flowering stage.

Organ / stage
flowering stagee3
Outcome
residuese3
Qualifier
no detectablee3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e3

“revealing no detectable residues at the flowering stage and an average of 0.1844 μg g−1 in some fruiting-stage samples”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1021–1139 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Fruit residues averaged 0.1844 μg g−1 in some fruiting-stage samples.

Organ / stage
fruiting-stage samplese3
Outcome
residuese3
Value
0.1844 μg g−1e3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e3

“revealing no detectable residues at the flowering stage and an average of 0.1844 μg g−1 in some fruiting-stage samples”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1021–1139 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultno effectmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Progeny seedlings showed no visible injury.

Outcome
visible injurye4
Qualifier
Progeny seedlingse4

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“Effect of low rates of 2,4-D on tomato”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 0–38 · show in text ↑
e4

“Progeny seedlings showed no visible injury”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1199–1241 · show in text ↑
Intervention effectobservedoriginal resultnegativemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Low-rate 2,4-D exposure can reduce tomato yield when drift occurs early in growth.

Treatment
low-rate 2,4-D exposuree5
Outcome
yielde5
Direction
reducee5
Qualifier
when drift occurs early in growthe5

Not reportedComparator

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Solanum lycopersicum
Solanum lycopersicum · TaxonKod B · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

e5

“These findings demonstrate that even low-rate 2,4-D exposure can reduce tomato yield when drift occurs early in growth”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1243–1361 · show in text ↑

2,4-D · yield · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Results differ

13 papers: 10 positive, 3 negative or no effect

2 papers in the same direction as this paper · 10 in the opposite direction

  1. positive
  2. positive
  3. positive

9 papers more in this group

See all 13 papers →

Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.