Parasitism of root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, in varieties of castor plants

Abstract

In western Bahia, the castor plant is growing due to topographical and climatic conditions highly favorable to the production of oil. However, diseases that affect the culture can affect the productivity and quality of production, such as those caused by nematodes which are little known. Thus the objective of this work was to evaluate the pathogenicity of the nematode galls of Meloidogyne incognita in six varieties of castor oil. In the greenhouse was the test of pathogenicity has been sown in six varieties of castor (MPA 29, MPA 32, MPA 31, MPA 12, MPA 10 and Mirante 30) and a tomato (Santa Cruz Kada) in plastic containers with capacity of 500 cm3 , containing sterilized substrate formed by the mixture of soil, sand and manure in the proportions of 2:1:2. Ten days after emergence plants was done the infestation substrate with 2,000 eggs of Meloidogyne incognita and thirty-five days later quantified the number of knot, egg mass and eggs per root. None of the castor bean cultivars evaluated was susceptible to parasitism of Meloidogyne incognita, which is interesting for planting in areas that are infested with the nematode using it as a trap plant to control disease.