Incidence of citrus nematode Tylenchulus semipenetrans Cobb in citrus growing areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan and its organic management

Abstract

Citrus orchards at Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera and Malakand, were surveyed for citrus nematode, Tylenchulus semipenetrans during autumn 2015-16. Maximum infestation (86%) was recorded at Pallai in Malakand division while minimum infestation (44%) was recorded in Malakandher, Peshawar. These results indicated that nematode infestation was more in loamy sand soil. The female nematodes clinging to the roots and inside the roots were maximum in Malakand Pallai samples (2,865) followed by Nowshera Kaka sahib (2,727) and minimum number of female nematodes were observed in citrus roots collected from Peshawar Malakandher (786) and Tarnab (980). A pot experiment was conducted to see the effect of poultry manure, farm yard manure, spent mushroom compost and Cadusafos-Rugby (nematicide). Overall the results revealed that maximum mortality (i.e., 75%) of the citrus nematode juveniles in 50 g soil was observed in the nematicide treated plants followed by poultry manure (55%) and spent compost (53%).