Efficacy of bacterial antagonists as seed treatment and neem oil cake against Meloidogyne incognita in Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Mahalik J.K.*, Mohapatra Kishan, Sahu Anukiran Department of Nematology, College of Agriculture, O.U.A.T., Bhubaneswar-751 003 (Odisha), India *jayanta_mahalik@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 7 April, 2020. Abstract A pot culture study was carried out in the net house condition to test the effectiveness of neem oil cake and bacterial antagonists (Pseudomonas putida, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Pseudomonas fluorescens) as seed treatments @ 10 g/kg seed in alone and combinations against root knot nematode infecting cucumber. All the treatments recorded significantly increase in plant growth parameters and decrease in nematode growth over untreated inoculated check. Among all treatments, the combined effect of neem cake and bio-agents exhibited higher plant growth than their single application. The treatment comprising of soil application of neem oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and seed treatment with P. fluorescens @ 10 g/kg seed significantly increased the shoot length (69.7%), root length (84.5%), fresh shoot weight (35.4%), fresh root weight (98.2%), dry shoot weight (89.5%), dry root weight (94.1%) and decreased the root galls/plant (82.6%), number of egg masses/plant (84.8%) and final nematode population (66.3%) in soil, respectively over untreated check with lowest root knot index (2.67) followed by soil application of neem oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and seed treatment with B. amyloliquefaciens @ 10 g/kg seed. Therefore, soil application of neem oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and seed treatment with P. fluorescens @ 10 g/kg seed may be recommended for eco-friendly management of Meloidogyne incognita in cucumber. Top Keywords Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Cucumis sativus, Meloidogyne incognita, Neem oil cake, Pseudomonas fluorescens.. Top |