Validation of a model for prediction of host damage by two nematode species.

PLANT ROOTS WERE MECHANICALLY INJURED OR SUBJECTED TO NEMATODE PARASITISM TO TEST THE MODEL OF HOST DAMAGE BY TWO NEMATODE SPECIES: y = m' + (l - m')c'z(P)z(P) for y 1.0, where m' = m + (m - m) (1 - y)/[(1 - y) + (l - y)] and c' = (z(-T) + z(-T))/2. Damage functions for greenhouse-grown radish plants (cv. Cherry Belle) mechanically injured with small or large steel needles were used to predict growth of plants injured by both needles. Growth predictions accounted for 94%, 87%, and 82% of mean treatment variation in plant height, stem weight, and root weight, respectively. Cowpea (cv. California Blackeye No. 5) damage functions, based on preplant population levels of Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica, were used to predict seed yield of plants concomitantly infected with various levels of each species. Single species damage functions and population growth curves indicated significant host resistance to M. incognita and significantly lower virulence of that species compared to M. javanica. Model predictions accounted for 88% of mean seed yield variation in two-species treatments. In a separate experiment, mean top weights of 30-day-old cowpea plants, nniformly inoculated with 20,000 M. javanica eggs, increased with increasing levels of concomitantly inoculated M. incognita eggs. It is speculated that competitive interactions between M. incognita and M. javanica mitigated host damage by the more virulent species.