Efficacy of soil solarization, achieved by covering bedded soil with transparent polyethylene for 9 wk, was compared with three other summer management strategies (covering with opaque polyethylene, rototilling, or maintenance of a summer weed cover) on a Rockdale series soil in southern Florida. Compared to the other methods studied, soil solarization resulted in significantly higher soil temperatures during the summer, lower populations of Rotylenchulus reniformis Linford & Oliveira at the end of the summer, and lower populations of nut-grass, Cyperus spp., than in control plots. The significant differences in R. reniformis populations by summer management treatment were not maintained through a subsequent tomato crop in autumn, but significant differences in Cyperus spp. and root-knot nematode galling were evident up to harvest of the tomato crop. However, root galling was further lowered by fumigation (67% methyl bromide, 33% chloropicrin). Fumigation following summer management
