Indian Journal of Nematology
Year : 1981, Volume : 11, Issue : 1
First page : ( 102) Last page : ( 102)
Print ISSN : 0303-6960.

Influence of soil texture and moisture on Pratylenchus delattrei Luc, 1958 population

Vadivelu Sivagami, Muthukrishnan T. S.

Tamilnadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-641 003.

Presented at Nematology Symposium held at Coimbatore, India in February, 1981

Abstract

Pot culture studies were conducted under glasshouse condition to assess the effect of three types of soils - clay loam, silt loam and sandy loam on the population build up of Pratylenchus delattrei and its relative effect on the growth of Crossandra undulaefolia. The highest population of 4038 nematodes was observed in silty loam as against 3284 and 2988 nematodes in clay loam and sandy loam soils respectively after sixty days of inoculation of the nematode at the rate of 1 nematode per ml of soil at the time of planting. The nematode inoculated plants in the three types of soil showed distinct reduction in plant growth, the per cent reduction (shoot weight) being 9.92, 11.70 and 16.68 respectively in silty loam, sandy loam and clay loam soils. However, there was no conspicuous variation in root weight. In an another experiment with clay soil in glazed pots, the effect of soil moisture on the nematode population was studied. Four levels of soil moisture, 32% (saturation), 24% (three-fourth saturation) 16% (half-saturation) and 8% (one-fourth saturation) were maintained and the build up of nematode population on the host plant, Crossandra cv. orange was assessed 90 days after the initial inoculation of 100 nematode in 1000 g of soil. Moisture level of half saturation point recorded the highest reproduction value (R) of 28.32 as against 2.89, 11.09 and 19.66 noticed in 32, 8 and 24 per cent moisture levels respectively. The maximum shoot length and root weight was noticed only in the pots which maintained 16 per cent moisture level inspite of the high rate of nematode multiplication.

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