Reproduction of Meloidogyne incognita on resistant and susceptible okra cultivars

Meloidogyne incognita is one of the most widespread and damaging plant-parasitic nematodes in pakistan and substantially affects growth and yield of okra (abelmoschus esculentus l). in the present study,reproduction of m. incognita was assessed on twelve okra cultivars with varying levels of resistance or susceptibility. maximum average egg masses (177.8),eggs per egg mass (298.4) and reproductive factor of 17.1 fold were observed on highly susceptible cultivar sharmeeli. the nematode produced 83.4 and 88.6 egg masses per root system,280 and 265.4 eggs per egg mass,reproduced 8 and 9 folds on susceptible cultivars okra sindha and anmol,respectively. egg masses,eggs per egg mass and reproductive factors ranged from 47.2 to 53,202.6 to 238 and 3.5 to 5.2 on moderately susceptible cultivars. in case of moderately resistant cultivars (sanam,dikshah,arka anamika,ikra-1 and ikra-2) the average egg masses ranged from 20.2 to 27.4,eggs per egg mass from 178 to 193.2 and reproductive factors were less than 2. these cultivars showed some tolerance to infection by the nematode. the cultivation of moderately resistant and tolerant cultivars would help reduce nematode reproduction enough to affect the residual nematode population density as uninterrupted cultivation of susceptible cultivars is exacerbating the root-knot problem in the country. � 2016,university of agriculture. all rights reserved.