Nematode Pests of Horticultural Crops and their Management (1+1)

Lecture - 15

Learning Objective: To be aware of nematodes associated with ornamental crops, their biology and symptomatology so that appropriate control measures could be adopted against them.

• Floriculture makes the type of agriculture with highest income per unit area. Flowers are grown mainly for their aesthetic value, perfume, and edible and medicinal oils.
• Ornamentals are mostly grown in monoculture and so become hot beds of infestation by plant parasitic nematodes which are destructive pests of a wide range of herbaceous and woody ornamental plants.
• Most plant parasitic nematodes feed on the fine, fibrous roots, but a few nematode species attack bulbs, corms, leaves, and shoot tips of a variety of flowers.

• The important ornamental crops grown commercially and known to suffer nematode damage are chrysanthemum, rose, carnation, gladiolus, jasmine, tuberose, crossandra etc.
• Root-knot (Meloidogyne incognita, M. arenaria, M. hapla), lesion (Pratylenchus vulnus, P. penetrans, P. pratensis), ring (Mesocriconema and Criconemoides spp.), and stunt (Tylenchorhynchus spp.) nematodes cause considerable injury to annuals, perennials, herbs, and woody ornamentals.
• Among foliar nematodes Aphelenchoides ritzemabosi is an economically important pest of commercially grown chrysanthemums.