Host suitability studies and reporting of resistance to root-knot nematode (<i>Meloidogyne incognita</i>)

Abstract

Efficient and improved agripreneurship cannot be attained if measures are not put in place to curtail crop losses due to nematode damage. This research was conducted to look at the level of resistance and susceptibility of selected annual crops to guide agripreneurs on what crops to adopt for planting in meloidogyne infested soils and in crop rotation as a method of cultural control. Five crops namely were randomly selected from different crop families and soillorganic manure medium in a 3:1 ratio was used as the planting medium. Nematode inoculum containing about 1000 larvae of the root knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita in 30ml of nematode slurry was used to inoculate the test crops with the control left un-inoculated. Data were collected on plant height, fresh root weight, fresh top weight and number of galls/plant. The data were analyzed using genstat and the mean separation done using Fisher’s least significant difference. The results showed that maize was resistant to the inoculum and a good control crop in nematode infested soils while the other four test crops (water-melon, green beans, tomato and green amaranthus) showed varying degrees of susceptibilities from the effect of the inoculum on all the parameters measured. Maize being immune to the inoculum can be used in rotation programmes as a cultural control crop in M. incognita infested plots to reduce the pest’s population and boost the yield of the follow-up crop.

Keywords: Infestation, Nematode inoculum, Meloidogyne incognita, Resistance and Susceptibility,