Pre-harvest retting of flax with glyphosate — Effects of moisture and microbial colonisation on retting

Increasing the frequency of misting of flax plants which had been treated with the herbicide glyphosate also tended to increase the numbers of microbial isolates and increase retting. Fungicides, applied at weekly intervals, suppressed the numbers of fungi but increased the numbers of bacterial isolates; they also decreased retting. Numbers and proportions of fungal isolates varied to some extent with treatment but the spectrum of isolates was relatively constant and appeared little influenced by artificial inoculation. Alternaria alternata was the dominant fungal isolate.