Nematicidal Activities of Certain Animal Manures and Biopesticides against Meloidogyne incognita Infecting Cucurbit Plants under Greenhouse Conditions

Abstract

A greenhouse experiment was carried out to evaluate the nematicidal activity of animal manures viz. chicken and goat manures, biopesticides viz. bio-zeid and nemex against Meloidogyne incognita infecting three cucurbits compared with oxamyl. Cucurbit plants namely cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Biet Alpha, squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) cv. Escandrany and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) cvs. Master and.Mlokywere chosen for this study. Results indicated that of five tested materials, oxamyl, chicken and goat manures were the most effective in suppressing root galling and number of egg masses of M.incognita infecting cucurbit plants. Oxamyl (69.22%), chicken (60.98%) and goat (56.60 %) manures showed better performance in reducing root galling on cucumber than did on squash. Among the two cultivars of watermelon, the effectiveness of oxamyl (70.75), chicken (52.29) and goat (49.22%) manures were more pronounced on Master than on Mloky cultivar with root galling reached 50.74, 28.36 and 23.88% respectively. On the other hand, all treatments showed significant (P ≤ 0.05) improvement in cucurbits to certain extent. The maximum percentage of increase in shoot fresh weight was recorded on cucumber (93.30; 74.76%) and watermelon cv. Mloky (92.74; 76.81%) in pots receiving oxamyl and chicken manure, respectively. In general, number of galls showing fewer and smaller gall diameter (˂ 2 mm ) was significantly decreased by oxamyl, chicken and goat manures in the three plant species. Our results showed that chicken and goat manures could be used to increase crop yield of cucurbit plants and for controlling root-knot nematode, M.incognita .