Nematode problems of the Mediterranean coastal stripe in the Syrian Arab Republic

Abstract

Records of plant parasItIc nematodes in Syria are scarse and scanty. Mamluk and Faust (1975) reported the occurrence of root-knot nematodes such as Meloidogyne arenaria (Neal) Chitwood, M. incognita (Kofoid et White) Chitwood and M. javanica (Treub) Chitwood in association with cotton and sugarbeet in various districts, and Tayar (1980) claims that losses in yield of tobacco are caused by M. javanica and that seed treatments with aldoxycarb would control infestations by M. incognita in cotton. The stem nematode, Ditylenchus dipsaci (Kuehn) Filipjev, was found to severely infest broadbean fields on the Mediterranean coast (Hanounik and Sikora, 1980). A survey of plant parasitic nematodes was carried out in the period December 1981 - January 1983 on the Mediterranean coastal stripe. Control trials of the root-knot nematodes on tomato and cucumber were also conducted in the greenhouses of the F.A.O. project at Lattakia (AI-Hannadi) and Tartous (Amrit). The results of these investigations are here reported.