The effects of fly ash at different concentrations (0, 10, 20, 30 .. .100% vol./vol. in soil) on plant growth and yield were investigated in tomato plants infected or noninfected with root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita (2000 juveniles per plant) in clay pots. An increase in fly ash concentration in the soil correspondingly increased the availability of carbonates, bicarbonates, sulphate, chlorides, B, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu and Zn in the soil. The porosity, water-holding capacity, pH, conductivity and cation exchange capacity also increased progressively in the fly ash amended soil. Ash application enhanced plant growth, leaf pigment concentrations, fruit production, weight of fruit/plant and mean fruit weight of both nematodeinfected and noninfected tomato plants, being maximum in the soil containing 50 or 60% fly ash. The yield enhancements were 93 . 6 (infected plants) and 84% (noninfected plants) at 50 and 60% fly ash levels, respectively. Fly ash treatments adversely affected root invasion by juveniles, disease intensity and reproduction of the nematodes. A gradual increase in the ash concentration in soil caused a corresponding decrease in the numbers of invading juveniles, galls and egg masses per root system and eggs/egg mass, being lowest at 100% fly ash i.e. 52, 16, 10 and 81 against 289, 137, 131 and 238 (control), respectively. Linear regression suggested 40% fly ash as the most economic level, enhancing yield of infected plants by 96% and suppressing the nematode disease and reproduction by 63 and 76%, respectively.

Plant growth, yield, pigment and protein content of cow-pea were increased significantly at lower levels (20 and 40%) of fly ash but reverse was true at higher levels (80 and 100%). Soil amended by 60% fly ash could cause suppression in growth and yield in respect to 40% fly ash treated cow-pea plants but former was found at par with control (fly ash untreated plants). Maximum growth occurred in plants grown in soil amended with 40% fly ash. Nitrogen content of cow-pea was suppressed progressively in increasing levels of fly ash. Moreover, Rhizobium leguminosarum influenced the growth and yield positively but Meloidogyne javanica caused opposite effects particularly at 20 and 40% fly ash levels. The positive effects of R. leguminosarum were marked by M. javanica at initial levels. However, at 80 and 100% fly ash levels, the positive and negative effects of R. leguminosarum and/or M. javanica did not appear as insignificant difference persist among such treatments.

Verrucispora indica, a new species of Hyphomycetes parasitizing the living leaves of Smilax prolifera Roxb., is described and illustrated.

The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of amending soil with decomposed neem (Azadirachta indica) sawdust at different concentrations (0-100%) against different inoculum levels (0-4000) of root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne arenaria) infecting the eggplants. Various physico-chemical properties of the soil increase as the concentration of decomposed neem sawdust (NSD) in the field soil increases. Nevertheless, the nitrogen content of the soil decreased with a progressive fluctuation in NSD. Lower levels (10-30%) of NSD, with and without different inoculum levels, improve the plant growth and photosynthetic pigment content significantly compared to controls (plants with uninoculated soil) as well as inoculated plants. The maximum improvement in the growth and photosynthetic pigments was recorded at 30% NSD soil amendment and this was continuously effective against all the nematode inoculum levels. At higher levels of NSD (40-100%), all the studied growth and photosynthetic parameters were decreased gradually to control and a similar reductional trend was also observed on nematode inoculated eggplants. On root-knot nematode reproduction, NSD at all levels progressively suppressed the number of egg masses but enhanced the number of galls only up to 30%. Galling was, however, totally absent in 70% and onward dust treatments of eggplants. Conclusively, NSD suppressed plant growth and photosynthetic pigments along with nematode buildup beyond 40% amendments. Thus, lower NSD levels (up to 30% amendments) will be recommended as growth and photosynthetic pigments supplement to eggplants, which also have nematicidal potential against egg masses of nematodes.