Influence of Soil Temperature and pH on Pratylenchus Penetrans and P. crenatus in Alfalfa and Timothy

Abstract

Numbers of Pratylenchus penetrans in alfalfa and timothy, and to a lesser extent P. crenatus in timothy, increased substantially as temperature increased from about l0 C to 30 C. However, P. crenatus in alfalfa decreased in number as temperature increased. Mobility of P. crenatus in vertical soil columns decreased as temperature increased from 9.5 C to 28.5 C. Raising the soil pH from 5.0 to 6.9 in which alfalfa was grown increased the numbers of P. penetrans and greatly reduced the numbers of P. crenatus. The numbers of both nematode species in timothy were reduced significantly as soil pH was increased. The optimum soil pH for movement of P. penetrans was 6.0. Pratylenchus crenatus moved equally well over a range of pH 5.0 to 7.0. Key words: root-lesion nematodes, population size, movement.