Control of the damping-off disease of pea by Aphelenchus avenae

The strain of the mycophagous nematode, Aphelenchus avenae, used in these tests, fed and multiplied on Pythium ultimum, but not on pea seedlings when tested in vitro andinsterilizedsoils. When 50,000 to 100,000 nematode of this species were added simultaneously with P. ultimum to 10 cm clay pots of non-sterilized soil the emergenceand survival percentages of pea seedlings ranged from 33 to 86 compared to 0 to 26 when P. ultimum was the only inoculum. In sterilized soils with 50,000 to 100,000 nematodes plus P. ultimum, the emergence percentages were between 46 and 73, whereas the fungus alone reduced the percentage to 13.