Trap crops for Meloidogyne hapla management and its integration with supplementary strategies

Abstract

The northern root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne hapla, is an increasing problem in organic vegetable production in Northern Europe. Lack of resistant cultivars, M. hapla’s ability to use a wide spectrum of hosts, including many common weed species, as refuge and lack of consistently efficient mitigation measures call for clever integration of several control strategies. Here trap crop strategies are reviewed. Dead-end trap crops are poor hosts that are infected by M. hapla, but restrict the development and reproduction of the nematodes inside the roots. The susceptible trap crop strategy employs good host plants that are mulched before the nematodes inside the root tissues reach maturity and start reproduction. This review presents plant species that have been employed as trap crops for M. hapla and evaluate their applicability and pinpoint pitfalls of the strategy. Further, the review outlines supplementary management measures (trap crop uprooting, black fallow, cover crops and biofumigation) that can be integrated with trap crops to ensure efficient reduction of M. hapla infection risk for subsequent susceptible vegetable crops.