Reaction of selected potato cultivars to Meloidogyne incognita and Ralstonia solanacearum under greenhouse conditions

Abstract

The research was conducted to evaluate the reaction of 13 potato cultivars to co-infestation of Meloidogyne incognita (MI) and Ralstonia solanacearum (RS) under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomised design with three replications. “Gudenie” and “Belete” were shown “resistant” to MI when pre-inoculated with RS. “Mara Charre”, “Guassa”, “Araarsaa” and “Dagim” showed “moderately resistant” to RS when inoculated with RS alone, the rest fall under “resistant”. “Bubu” produced the highest values (5.3) of marketable tuber number per plant with most tested treatments. The study provided evidence of the co-infection and a synergistic relationship between MI and RS. More efforts are required towards breeding of potato resistant to RKN and bacterial wilt disease complex. The relationship between initial population density of MI and RS, and damage to potato needs further study in Ethiopia.