EVALUATION OF CROTALARIA JUNCEA POPULATIONS AS HOSTS AND ANTAGONISTIC CROPS TO MANAGE MELOIDOGYNE INCOGNITA AND ROTYLENCHULUS RENIFORMIS

Abstract

Marla, S. R., R. N. Huettel, and J. Mosjidis. 2008. Evaluation of Crotalaria juncea Populations as Hosts and Antagonistic Crops to Manage Meloidogyne incognitia and Rotylenchulus reniformis. Nematropica 38: 155-162. Crotalaria juncea populations collected from different countries (PI 207657 from Sri Lanka, PI 314239 from Russia, PI 322377 from Brazil, PI 391567 from South Africa and PI 426626 from Pakistan) were obtained from the National Plant Germplasm System. These C. juncea populations were evaluated for their ability to suppress southern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, and reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis in greenhouse conditions. All C. juncea populations were able to significantly suppress (P ≤ 0.05) M. incognita and R. reniformis in greenhouse tests. Crotalaria juncea roots stained with McCormick Schilling® red food color were found to contain all juvenile stages, low numbers of mature females of M. incognita with egg masses and 1-2 female reniform nematodes per 10 gm of roots, indicating that these nematodes were able to infest and reproduce on C. juncea populations. However, the reproduction on C. juncea was very low when compared to the tomato or cotton controls. Freeze-dried C. juncea root exudates tested against both M. incognita and R. reniformis demonstrated that concentrated root exudates could kill both nematodes.