Assessing the Potential of Some Egyptian Plants as Soil Amendments in Meloidogyne Incognita Management on Tomato

Abstract

In a pot experiment, dried plant materials of Brassica oleracea, Bougainvillea spectabilis, Emex spinosa and Erythrina humina were mixed with soil at the rate of 5 and 10 g/kg soil and compared their nematicidal potential with oxamyl, against the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita infecting tomato plants under greenhouse conditions. In addition, their effects on the growth of tomato plants were also assessed. The results showed that all the amendments exhibited varying degree of reduction compared to control. Moreover, Erythrina humenea recorded the highest reductions in galls/ root system (96.77%), egg masses/ root system (97.99%), eggs/ mass (77.11%) and soil populations/250g soil (93.60%). Except E. spinosa, employing high rate of the tested dried plants gave higher activity in suppressing the nematode parameters than the low rate. Besides highly nemato-toxic potential, B. oleracea, B. spectabilisor, E. spinosa showed phytotoxic effects on tomato when used at the high rate. These dried plant materials at low rate show promising nematicidal activity and may offer possibilities as non-chemical alternatives for the management of M. incognita on tomato.