FIELD ASSESSMENT OF DIFFERENT SAMPLING STRATEGIES FOR COFFEE PLANTATIONS PARASITIZED BY <I>MELOIDOGYNE EXIGUA</I>

Authors

  • R. M. Souza
  • A. R. Volpato
  • A. P. Viana

Keywords:

Coffea arabica, coffee root-knot nematode, epidemiology, population assessment, sampling pattern

Abstract

Souza, R. M., A. R. Volpato, and A. P. Viana. 2007. Field assessment of different sampling strategies for coffee plantations parasitized by Meloidogyne exigua. Nematropica 37:345-355. To this date, there has been no assessment of strategies for quantitative sampling of Meloidogyne exigua. This imposes a major obstacle for realistic estimation of nematode population levels, establishment of damage thresholds, and improvement of the decision process for nematode management in coffee plantations. In this work, a commercial coffee plantation naturally infested by M. exigua was sampled for two years for comparison of different sampling core locations and J2- and root gallingrelated epidemiological variables. The sampling strategy primarily used by nematologists and agricultural workers-sampling near the edge of the coffee canopy to quantify second-stage juveniles in the soil-was revealed as inadequate for assessment of M. exigua populations. The best strategy for this nematode is to quantify the number of root galls/5 g of roots obtained from sampling cores located under the canopy, at the depth of 0-25 cm.

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Published

2007-12-01

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Section

Articles