2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Microscopic nematode worms can harm both garden and indoor plants. It is impossible to notice them immediately. Making their way into the roots and tubers, they ruthlessly take away the nutrients of the culture, thereby significantly slowing down its vegetation and gradually leading it to death. Potato nematodes are especially insidious, reducing huge yields to nothing. How can you defeat them?
Worms under a microscope
It is not easy to discern such an insidious enemy. These are roundworms of microscopic size. Their females are ball-like (0.5-0.8mm) with a protruding neck. Males are almost twice as large as females (1-1, 2mm). The female lays up to 600 eggs. In autumn, females turn into dark brown cysts and when digging potatoes fall off the roots, remaining in the ground. And the eggs in them hibernate without problems, and can be stored there for up to 10 years. They usually hatch in spring, during the period of emergence of potatoes.
Pest eggs cannot be seen without a microscope, since they are measured in microns. The larvae have four phases of development. The larva spends the first of the phases in the egg, and, starting from the second, turns into a harmful larva that lays in the roots of the plant. Attracted by the aroma of the potato and the substances it secretes, the larvae gather on the bark of the roots, where they spend their third phase of development, actively feeding on the juices of the plant. And finally, in the fourth phase, the larvae break through the bark of the roots and prepare for reproduction.
Carried by both wind and water
Nematodes are especially fond of light sandy and sandy loam soils. They are found there most often. The potato nematode is spread by cysts, which easily adhere to any object, including shoes. They are often carried by the wind, water and with planting material (tubers, root crops, bulbs, seedlings of fruit and berry crops, etc.). Dangerous in the spread of the pest and seed potatoes grown in land infected with nematodes.
Plants damaged by worms lag behind in growth and development, look stunted. Often their lower leaves die off, and the rest begin to turn yellow. Bushes may not survive until autumn. And the harvest is quite frail.
Leave stains
In the first year of infection, individual small spots (bald patches) are noticeable in the areas of plants affected by the nematode. Later they begin to merge, increasing the area of the lesion. If you dig up diseased bushes during flowering, you can see many females and their cysts (cream, white, brown or golden yellow shades) on the roots than resembling poppy seeds.
It is much easier to deal with nematodes detected in time. They can also be detected by soil analysis. To do this, you need to take a handful of earth from several places from a depth of 5-10 cm and connect them. Usually, samples are taken in 5 cm3, forming a total sample of 200-250 cm3. Further, the land is given for analysis to a special phytohelminthological laboratory, which happens at the State Republican Inspectorate for Plant Quarantine or to a plant protection station.
Cleanliness Needed
First of all, in order to prevent it, it is necessary to regularly rid the site of weeds and self-seeding. The use of mineral and organic fertilizers will also be beneficial, because if the plant is healthy and well fed, then the nematode attacks it less often.
However, the most effective control measures are the use of nematicide chemicals. For example, thiazone is a yellow or white powdery substance with a weak characteristic odor.100 g of this substance is used per square meter, it is sprayed over the surface of the soil and after that it is dug up or plowed. This is usually done in the fall after the harvest season, or in early spring one month before planting.
In the northern regions, nematicides are applied only next spring, and in the southern regions - already in the fall. You can avoid the nematode invasion by choosing potato varieties resistant to it (Crystal, Nesterka, Sonata, Dvina, Cardinal, Premier, etc.). However, it is not recommended to plant such varieties in infected areas annually for more than three years. Otherwise, pests can adapt to them. It is advisable, when sowing nematode-resistant potatoes, to prevent the ingress of ordinary ones, which can provoke pests to exploits and increase the affected area.
When attacking your site with such a pest, you must not give up. Correct prevention and timely, persistent struggle will definitely give a positive result!
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