Black velvet bean, jack bean and showy rattlebox for Pratylenchus brachyurus management
摘要
The lesion nematode Pratylenchus brachyurus is widespread in Brazilian agriculture fields, causing yield losses in perennial and annual crops. Annually, over eight million ha are sowed with soybean seeds treated with biological or synthetic nematicides, aiming to manage phytonematodes, mainly P. brachyurus. Specifically for P. brachyurus, three species of cover crops (pearl millet, showy rattlebox and slenderleaf rattlebox) were used as off-season crops for nematode management. Black velvet bean and jack bean are other important cover crops, but there are disagreements in the literature about their host status to P. brachyurus. Therefore, two greenhouse experiments were carried out to assess the reproduction of P. brachyurus on black velvet bean, jack bean and showy rattlebox. In experiment 1, the nematode population densities increased 24.8x after 132 days on black velvet and 32.8x on jack bean, whereas decrease until undetectable level on showy rattlebox. In experiment 2, the nematode population densities increased 41.5x after 96 days in black velvet bean, 75.0x in jack bean, whereas decreased 10% in showy rattlebox. Thus, showy rattlebox is a cover crop very effective to control P. brachyurus, whereas black velvet bean and jack bean should be avoided in crop fields infested with this nematode.