PATHOGENICITY AND SCREENING OF GROUNDNUT CULTIVARS AGAINST MELOIDOGYNE ARENARIA

Abstract

One week old seedling of three groundnut cultivars PG-1, M-13 and J-11 inoculated with different levels ofMeloidogyne arenaria showed that the growth of plants was adversely affected with increasing nematode inoculum,whereas in M-13 and PG-1 the reduction was not statistically significant. In J-11, 2 larvae per g of soil was the damaging threshold level, but the nematode reproduction was limited. Rate of nematode multiplication was maximum in PG-1 at the lowest inoculum level. At highest level of inoculation, the population just maintained itself in two cultivars and was less than the initial population in J-11. Out of 500 varieties tested, C-41 (NRCG-31), NCAC-2196 (NRCG-1010), Local 256 and Japtin-220-15 exhibited a resistant reaction against root-knot nematode, M. arenaria.