Nematodes

As vegetable crops finish the season, inspect roots for root-knot nematodes. Look for galls or swollen roots, which can reduce plant vigor and yields. Early detection helps guide management strategies for future crops.

IpM Scouting Tips posted in the Fruit and Vegetable News.

Agronomy News-August 2022, Volume 13, Issue 4. Topics in this issue are Small Grain Variety Trials, Palmer Amaranth Control in Organic Systems, Possible Changes to Atrazine Use, Japanese Stiltgrass Identification and Control, Sampling for Nematodes in Soybeans, Sprayer and Pesticide Twilight Meeting, Broiler Grower Settlements, New Rules for Processing Food Wastes and Residuals, Webinar: Solar On The Farm, Pasture and Grazing Workshops, Grain Market Report, Weather Outlook, and Regional Crop Reports.

This must be a bad year for garlic because besides finding bulb mites we also have found garlic bloat nematode in several samples of damaged garlic. I wrote about this nematode last year and advised garlic growers to watch for it and to test any bad looking bulbs for it.

Nematodes are worm-shaped animals found in many different environments and 10% of known nematode species are parasites of plants. Plant-parasitic nematodes are thread-like, virtually invisible to the naked eye when in the soil or within plant material, and range from 1/50 to 1/8 of an inch (0.2 to 4.0 mm) long with a diameter of about 1/1000 of an inch (30 µm).

Timely Viticulture is an electronic newsletter designed to remind grape producers of seasonal vineyard needs and considerations throughout the year.

Disease Management for Organic Vegetable Farms

As this growing season winds down and for the next few weeks it is a good time to examine vegetable roots for root knot nematode (RKN). I would be suspicious of having RKN if my vegetables seemed to need more water than normal or wilted during the heat of the day and recovered later or plants had nutrient deficiency symptoms rarely seen in your fields and the addition of fertilizers did not seem to alleviate the deficiency symptoms.