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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #310187
Title: Effect of tillage and fumigation on Pasteuria penetrans

Author
item Timper, Patricia - Patty

Submitted to: International Congress of Nematology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/6/2014
Publication Date: 5/5/2014
Citation: Timper, P. 2014. Effect of tillage and fumigation on Pasteuria penetrans. Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Nematology, May 4-9, 2014, Cape Town, South Africa. p.67-68.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The endospore-forming bacterium Pasteuria penetrans (Pp) is a parasite of Meloidogyne spp. In this study, the effect of tillage and the fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) on numbers of Pp and suppression of M. incognita (Mi) was evaluated from 2011-2013. A split-plot experiment was established in a field infested with both the nematode and bacterium. The main plots were tillage (strip vs conventional) with five fumigation treatments in 4-year sequences within each tillage treatment (C=no fumigant; F=fumigant): C-C-C-C, F-F-F-F, F-C-F-C, F-F-C-F, and C-F-F-C. Abundance of Pp endospores was determined in the spring after tillage/fumigation and average root-gall indices on cotton plants were determined at the end of the season. Additionally, a greenhouse bioassay was conducted to determine reproductive potential of Mi in soil collected from each plot at planting time. Abundance of Pp was greater in C-C-C-C than in most of the fumigated treatments and greater in strip tillage than in conventional tillage in 2012 and 2013. Nevertheless, the reproductive potential of Mi in the greenhouse was not affected by the fumigation or tillage treatments. Endospore abundance was greater in 2012 than in the other two years and was negatively correlated with reproductive potential only in that year. In the no-fumigation treatment, endospore abundance was negatively correlated with gall index indicating that Pp was contributing to nematode suppression. Tillage mixes and redistributes soil and may move endospores away from the planting furrow. Although1,3-D has no direct effect on Pp, it reduces the number of available hosts leading to lower endospore numbers.