My first showdown with source - knot nematode worm was many years ago in my Southern California garden . I harvested a crop of stunted carrots with eldritch bumps and split roots , which was n’t too alarming since I had heavy , bouldered soil .
The next time of year , I imbed Swiss chard in the same bed and the plant life seemed rather lustreless compare to the spinach beet in my other beds . Did they require more nitrogen ? More water ? Less water ?
When I pull up all the plants a few month later on , the problem was clear : I had rootage - mi nematode in the soil .
revelation : If you shop from my article or make a leverage through one of my links , I may receive commissions on some of the products I urge .
What are all those bumps on the roots?
Root - knot nematodes ( Meloidogyne spp . ) are microscopic tinea that hold out in the filth and parasitize industrial plant ancestor . As they spring up , they feed on the roots , damage them and make weak points for other soilborne pathogens ( like Fusarium and Verticillium ) to inscribe .
The roots swell up and develop a characteristic “ knotted ” show ( known as theme rancor ) that make it difficult for plant life to take up water and nutrient . The root mass may be abnormally shallow with lots of dead areas or unreasonable branching .
In root crop ( like carrots),root - knot nematodes cause forking and twisting of the rootsand a kind of hairy appearance .
In other vegetables ( like chard , tomato plant , squash , and a server of other susceptible crops ) , they ’re seen as a series of small , round , hard gibbousness on the root . ( These bumps are not to be befuddle with the ancestor nodules forge bybeneficial fungi call rhizobia . Rhizobia are good , root - knot nematodes are unfit . )
You often do n’t realize they ’re there until it ’s too late , because all the evidence is below ground but above ground , the symptom are rather ambiguous . Slow or scrawny ontogenesis , wilt leaves , and poor yield of flowers and fruit can be attributed to many other soil and plant problems .
So what to do if you ’ve got etymon - international nautical mile nematodes ? First , do n’t dismiss them — they will only bear on to multiply and be incredibly intemperate to root out from the grease .
Your design of action should start with knowing what types of plants they tend to point — and not plant those ( at least for a while ) .
Avoid susceptible crops
Root - gnarl nematodes emphatically have a preference for certain crops more than others . Even in the same bed , there may be heavily infected works growing just a few foot aside from others that are virtually untouched .
Avoid growing these vegetables in nematode - invade soil , as they ’re by and large more susceptible to etymon damage :
Dispose of all infected plants
If you find nematode - damaged plants , be sure to root for up the full plant — include all of the roots — and dispose of the plant debris . ( I say “ plant debris ” because the harvest is commonly still comestible , even if it ’s a second unsightly . )
If the plant dies ( or is rend from the soil ) , then the nematodes break down with it since they ’re incapable of drive once they get going feeding . ( Do n’t get too excited though , because there will still be eggs in the territory that can cover . )
Do n’t compost the touch on plants or works region , or temporarily stash them somewhere else in the garden while you tend to other garden chores . ( You do n’t want to inadvertently unfold them to other beds ! ) Just chuck them right in the tripe .
Avoid moving infested soil
If you have a layer with nematode worm - overrun grime , avert moving that filth into other component of your garden . Sometimes this happen unintentionally if you decide to move a seedling or initiate and replant it in another bed , for example .
Rotate crops on a three-year cycle
Do you practice crop rotation in your comestible garden ? No ? Then it ’s a salutary meter to set about .
Rotating your crops on a three - yr cycle give good territory bug unlike food source , leading to healthier soil all around .
I keep crop rotation simple with this method :
Get better organized
Track where all your crops have been planted
If you have a surd sentence think back where you ’ve planted thing , myUltimate Garden Diarycan facilitate you keep rail of crop rotation docket and more .
This is n’t a hard and libertine linguistic rule , however , since I do like to interplant and chronological succession sow my crops . I often develop parsley and cilantro in various beds for their flowers , or stick a few random seeds in empty spots where I ’d just recede old plant .
But as long as you ’re not growing one eccentric of plant life in the same layer class after year , you ’ll start to reduce base - knot nematode populations in the soil . It ’s a ho-hum process if this is all you do , but move your plants around helps keep other pesterer and disease in check too .
I advocate mix crop rotary motion with my next tip below .
Grow things they don’t love
Root - mi nematodes do n’t attack all plants . In fact , there are plenty they do n’t hump , so arise plant that are n’t host to these pests will fundamentally starve them ( and finally eliminate them ) .
You ’ll point out that most of these plant life ( depending on your clime ) are perennial . If you have a problem with nematode , consider turning the area into a twelvemonth - round food garden with otherperennial vegetablesandperennial herbs .
Otherwise , you’re able to rotate these industrial plant through your septic beds and successfully wipe out origin - knot nematode after a few years . Just think back to stay on top of weeds that might become hosts to nematodes !
Try biofumigation
This sounds a lot more acute than it actually is . Biofumigation is a method acting of soilborne blighter control used in agriculture , where the chemical sum ( the fumigant ) is naturally unloose by decomposing plant materials .
Brassicas are often used in biofumigation . These include Brassica oleraceae ( sugar , Brassica oleracea italica , Brassica oleracea botrytis , cole , collards ) , Brassica juncea ( Chinese table mustard , Nipponese giant red mustard , Korean red and fleeceable mustard , mizuna ) , Raphanus sativus ( radish ) , and Eruca sativa ( arugula ) .
They acquire great amounts of glucosinolate , which break away down into volatile gaseous compounds called isothiocyanate as the plant break up . Research has shown that isothiocyanates are able to bottle up or kill ancestor - burl nematodes , making them a less toxic choice to synthetic fumigants .
The Francis Scott Key to successful biofumigation is produce the brassicas as a book binding crop and then ferment them into the soil about two to three week before you want to found your main crop .
While you may generally use any ejaculate diverseness , you ’ll get rid of root - knot nematodes faster if you arise a brassica that ’s especially developed for biofumigation with higher storey of glucosinolates .
What to buy
Grow marigolds in infected beds
Open - pollinated Gallic marigold ( Tagetes patula ) are another biofumigant commonly grown for nematode ascendance . The plant exude a substance called alpha - terthienyl that suppresses root - knot nematode worm and inhibits orchis hatching .
For maximal efficaciousness , you have to dedicate the entire infected seam to growing French marigolds en masse ( rather than interplanting marigolds with other crops ) . do by the marigolds as a cover crop and work on them into the soil to free their biofumigant compounds .
Grow root knot nematode-resistant varieties
Many veg diversity are resistant to root - knot nematode worm . They ’re either affected less by the disease , or the disease acquire slower or later on than in other varieties , give you time to harvest a decent crop .
appear in your favorite seeded player catalog for varieties that carry the acronym N ( for “ Nematodes ” ) or VFN ( “ repellent to Verticillium Wilt , Fusarium , and Nematodes ” ) .
Related : Here ’s alist of other uncouth cum terminologyyou might come across
If you ’re buy starting signal or transplants , some coarse roundworm - resistant miscellany I ’ve seen in garden centers include :
Boost the number of beneficial microbes in your soil
Typically when your soil is invade with pests , it think of something is out of balance . There are n’t enough good germ to poise the high-risk bugs , and the dear mode to add more good microbes to your soil is with compost .
This can look like a circumstances of things : acover harvest that ’s chop and dropped , a top dressing of aged compost added every year , anorganic mulch that ’s left to break down , or soil building through deep compost and composting in position .
All of this bring home the bacon the food and energy that mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria need to spring up , and keeping your grease active and abundant with good bug will facilitate on many fronts .
Fight bad nematodes with beneficial nematodes
Nematodes are n’t all bad — there are actually good ones out there that do n’t parasitize plant , and instead prey on fungi , bacterium , ground - lie in insect , and even other roundworm .
good roundworm work by reducing the number of radical - knot nematode eggs that hatch and inhibit the hatchlings from infecting flora ancestor . They ’re easy to buy ( often arriving in gunpowder or granular form ) and easy to introduce into a garden ( as a grunge drench or spray ) .
When all else fails, solarize your soil
in the end , this is what I did in my own garden to wipe out root - knot nematodes . I was going to be out of town for a good part of summertime , so I was all right with leave alone my bed fallow while the plastic sheeting make for its magic .
I write astep - by - stride template to soil solarisation here , and I think it ’s the most effective , cheap , and ( relatively ) hand - off method acting for getting rid of solution - knot roundworm ( as well as other pests and even weeds ) . Plus , it does n’t involve chemical treatment so you do n’t have to care about using it around kids , ducky , or wildlife .
The downside is that it does take several weeks to effectively “ cook ” the land under plastic , but once it heats up and holds steady at the correct temperature , you terminate up with fresh , clean dirt free of pests and disease , include those dreaded root - knot nematode .
