Diversity Of Plant Parasitic Nematodes And Bacillus Subtilis Affecting Common Bean (phaseolus Vulgaris L.) In Embu Kenya
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Date
2011Author
Wepukhulu, N. Miriam,
Kimenju, John
Anyango, Beatrice
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Plant parasitic nematodes cause estimated US $100 billion damage to agricultural crops. They
are among the pests that threaten bean production by smallholder farmers in Kenya. The study
sought to determine the presence of plant parasitic nematodes in Embu Kenya and different
management techniques including strains of Bacillus subtilis, and soil fertility improvement by
use of manure and inorganic fertilizer (TSP). The experimental set up included control plots with
no soil amendment. The experiment was laid in a completely randomized design with 4
replications. Plant parasitic nematodes were isolated from soils by the modified baermanns
technique while Bacillus subtilis were isolated using the procedure by Racke and Sikora. The
Data was subjected to analysis of variance using general statistical package for least significant
differences. Rotylenchus and Meloydogyne were among the most abundant nematode genera in
soils from Embu with 20% and 15% of the total nematodes respectively. Bacillus subtilis
combined with manure led to the highest (89%) reduction in plant parasitic nematodes. There
were significant (P<5) differences among the treatments with the control having the highest
galling index (4.5) on bean roots. B. subtilis and manure led to the least damage to bean roots in
the on farm experiments with galling indices of 1.6 and 1.8 respectively and contributed to the
effective control of Meloydogyne spp.