Eco-friendly management of Meloidogyne incognita in Betel vine (Piper betle L.)

The effectiveness of oil cakes (neem & mustard oil cakes) and bio agents (Purpureocillium lilacinum & Trichoderma viride) alone and combinations against root knot nematode infecting betel vine. From the result, it was revealed that all the treatments recorded significantly increase in plant growth parameters and decrease in nematode growth over untreated inoculated check. Among all the treatments, the combined effect of organic amendments and bio-agents exhibited higher plant growth than their single application. Soil application of neem oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and P. lilacinum @ 2.5 kg/ha significantly increased the shoot length (42.1%), fresh shoot weight (60.2%) and dry shoot weight (97.3%), root length (97.0%), fresh root weight (93.8%), dry root weight (97.1%) and number of leaves/plant (81.4%) with decreased the root galls per plant (87.4%), number of egg masses per plant (92.9%) and final nematode population (83.8%) in soil, respectively over untreated check with lowest root knot index (2.0) followed by soil application of neem oil cake @ 1.0 t/ha and T. viride @ 2.5 kg/ha.