ABSTRACT

Pot trial experiment was conducted at the College of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria between the months of June and October, 2014. The study was designed to determine; the nematicidal effect of leaf powders of Aspi/ía africana (African marigold), Termina/ia catapa (Indian almond) and Cyrnbopogon citratus ( lemon grass) against nematode infestation on tomato; appropriate time of application of plant materials and to compare the effect of the plant products with synthetic nematicide (carbofuran). The experiment consisted of six treatments with six replicates, arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Parameters recorded were number of leaves, plant height, number of fruits, weight of fruits, fresh shoot weight, number of galls in roots, number of nematode eggs in root and number of nematodes larvae in soil. Result obtained showed that treatments at day 1 and day 15 after inoculation with nematode eggs significantly (P ~ 0.05) r€ Juced the population of nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) in some parameters, than 30 days after inoculation, although in some cases, there were no significant differences bet veen treated and untreated experiments. Thus, different powders significantly increased tomato yield when compared with untreated (riematode alone). However treatments wth africana appeared to be most effective, as it recorded least number of galls irrespecth of periods of application (0.00, 4.00), eggs in the roots (0.00, 150) and nematode larvae in soil (5.00, 50.00). Plant treated with nematicide ranked second with (5.00,13.5c', number of galls, (350, 950) eggs in roots and (0.00, 50) nematode larvae in soil. Aspiia af.ana performed better than catapa and citratus leaf powders, suggesting that they couid bc effectively used Lne iinmenC oi wot-inot nematodes in tomato as alternat'e to chem al nematiic "f v' c t: "; - .ct hazard and pollution problems