Soil Texture effect on Growth of Cowpea Plants under Root-knot Nematode, Meloidogyne incognita Infested Conditions

Root-knot nematode (M. incognita) constitutes one of the important nematode pests on cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). The edaphic factors of soil such as soil texture play vital role in determining the severity of diseases caused by plant-parasitic nematodes. Screen house studies were conducted in 2013 and 2014 using 15cm size plastic pots (one kg capacity) having soils of five different textures (clay, clay loam, sandy loam, loamy sand and sand) on root-knot nematode (M. incognita) at one J2/g soil in cowpea (c.v. Ife brown) was undertaken. Under each soil type, nematode inoculated and non-inoculated checks were kept. The observations recorded 60 days after nematode inoculation revealed that maximum and significantly higher shoot length, fresh and dry root and shoot weight, number of leaves and buds/plant were in sandy loam soil while these growth parameters were minimum and significantly lower in clay loam soil irrespective of nematization. The reproduction factor of M. incognita based upon galling, fecundity and final soil populations was maximum (30.6) in sandy soil followed by loamy soil (25.8) while it was minimum (3.5) in clay soil making it least favourable for the nematode. With this result it shows that Sandy soil is highly favourable to M. incognita reproduction which is followed by loamy soil and the least favourable was clay soil to the nematode reproduction