The relationship bet ween initial population densities of Meloidogyne artiellia and yield of winter and spring chickpea
Authors
M. Di Vito
N. Greco
Abstract
The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne artiellia Franklin, was first reported from England on cabbage (Franklin, 1961). Later the nematode was found on wheat in Greece (Kyrou, 1969) and on chickpea in Spain (TobarJimenez, 1973), Italy (Greco, 1984), and Syria (Mamluk et al., 1983; Greco et al ., 1984). The nematode has a wide host range and reproduces well on cereals, cruciferous and legumes (Di Vito et al., 1985a). Among them are several plant species that are widely cultivated in the Mediterranean basin and severe damage must be expected, especially on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) (Di Vito and Greco, 1988). Therefore investigations were undertaken to ascertain the effect of a range of initial densities of an Italian population of M. artiellia on the yield of winter and spring sown chickpea.