Nemic Population Dynamics in Hybrid Tomato, Sweet Pepper and Hybrid Cucumber Under Polyhouse Cultivation

Nemic population dynamics was studied under Hi-Tech polyhouse cultivation of hybrid tomato, sweet pepper and hybrid cucumber under Indo-Israel project at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Crop management practices such as fumigation (with formaldehyde @250 L/ha) of polyhouse every year, removal/changing of top soil and regular supplement of pesticides (carbofuran 3G @1 kg a.i./ha) were followed regularly. Despite all these measures, intensity of root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) problem was observed in tomato and cucumber. The intensity of infestation and crop damage increased exponentially even in plots treated with formaldehyde before planting. The rate of growth of population density and crop damage was much faster in the polyhouse conditions than usually seen in open fields close by. Soil sampling was done at a regular interval which revealed that sweet pepper was least damaged due to the nematode infestation while, tomato and cucumber were the most severely affected. About 20 and 45% damage in tomato and cucumber crop was observed respectively due to M. incognita.