The long-term residual effect of the herbicide picloram poses risks of leaching and phytotoxicity to successive crops. Phytoremediation can abbreviate the long carryover effect. This research was carried out from September 2006 to February 2007, under green house conditions, in Rio Verde, Goiás, Brazil, to study the influence of Eleusine coracana population density on phytoremediation of soil contaminated with picloram. The treatments consisted of the combination of four Eleusine coracana population densities (0, 7, 14 and 21 plants per pot, corresponding to 0, 172, 344 and 516 plants m-2, respectively) and three picloram rates (0, 80 and 160 g ha-1 - applied directly to the pots, simulating soil contamination levels). After growing the phytoremediation species on substrate during 100 days, soybean was sown as a bioindicator species in the same pot. E. coracana was able to remediate soils contaminanted with picloram. At densities above 172 plants m-2, there was no further reduction of the carryover effect to soybean sown in succession.
bioremediation; herbicide carryover; soil decontamination
