Management of root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus coffeae in six commercial cultivars of banana through organic and inorganic amendments.

The field experiment was conducted over two crop cycles on six commercial cultivars: ‘Robusta’ (AAA), ‘Rasthali’ (AAB), ‘Poovan’ (AAB), ‘Nendran’ (AAB), ‘Karpuravalli’ (ABB) and ‘Monthan’ (ABB). The cultivars were planted in clay soil in a field infested with P. coffeae at National Research Centre for Banana (NRCB) farm in Podavur, Trichy. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design. There were 6 treatments replicated three times with five beds per replication and eight plants per bed. The treatments were: T1: 25% FYM1 + 75% inorganic (urea) T2: 25% neem cake + 75% inorganic T3: 25% FYM + 25% neem cake + 50% inorganic T4: 25% FYM + 50% neem cake + 25% inorganic T5: 25% FYM + green manure + 75% inorganic T6: 100% inorganic (200 g N/434 g urea)The root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus coffeae is considered one of the economically important nematode pests of banana and is reported to have spread through infested corms. In India, the nematode is known to occur on banana and plantain in all the states of South India, Gujarat, Orissa, Bihar and Assam (Sundararaju 1996). Crop losses caused due to P. coffeae in cv. ‘Nendran’ were reported to be 25.4% (Sundararaju et al. 1999). Several chemical products have been developed to manage this nematode, but they are expensive, cause environmental pollution and are health hazards. Organic farming is gaining in importance because of its beneficial effects, notably reduced use of chemical fertilizer and improved soils (better physicochemical properties and increased beneficial micro flora). Organic amendments and plant residues have been showed to reduce plant parasitic nematodes in several crops (Singh and Sitaramaiah 1973, Vemana et al. 1999, Adekunle and Fawole 2002). However, few studies looked at the effect of organic and inorganic fertilisers on plant growth and yield in banana, and on plant parasitic nematodes. In the present study, the effect of organic and inorganic amendments were tested on six commercial cultivars of banana infested with P. coffeae

Effect of organic farming on plant parasitic nematodes infesting banana cv. Karpuravalli.

An experiment was carried out during 2001-02 at Podavur, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India to investigate the influence of locally available organic amendments, such as distillery sludge, vermicompost, neem cake and poultry manure, on the populations of major parasitic nematodes infesting banana cv. Karpuravalli. The populations of root-lesion nematode (Pratylenchus coffeae), spiral nematode (Helicotylenchus multicinctus), root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) and cyst nematode (Heterodera oryzicola) were significantly lower in plants that received distillery sludge at 2.5 kg along with vermicompost at 1 kg, neem cake at 1 kg and poultry manure at 2.5 kg/plant at 3, 5 and 7 months after planting, compared with the untreated control. Based on individual applications, neem cake at 2 kg/plant at 3, 5 and 7 months after planting had profound lethal effect on the nematodes, and was at par with distillery sludge alone at kg/plant at monthly interval from 3 to 7 months after planting. Application of poultry manure at 5 kg resulted in the same degree of reduction in nematode populations. Among the organic amendments, vermicompost at 2 kg/plant was the least effective in reducing the nematode populations both in the soil and roots