Screening of Cucurbitaceous Rootstocks against Root Knot Nematodemeloidogyne Incognitakofoid and White

Root knot nematodes are responsible for severe crop loss in cucurbits to the tune of 547.5 million. Pot culture experiments were conducted under glasshouse conditions to study the effect of ischolar_main knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita Kofoid and White in twelve wild and cultivated cucurbitaceous species and to identify resistant ischolar_main stocks for grafting in bitter gourd. Second stage juveniles of M. incognita were inoculated at 2J2 per cc soil into the rhizosphere of 21 days old seedlings and changes in the growth rate viz., shoot length, shoot fresh and dry weight, ischolar_main length, ischolar_main fresh and dry weight were recorded after sixty days after inoculation. Number of galls per 10 gram of ischolar_main, egg mass and females per gram of ischolar_main, soil nematode population per 200 cc soil, final nematode population and ischolar_main gall indices were also determined at the end of the experiment. Soil and ischolar_main population of nematodes were assessed by standard methods and growth parameters were worked out. Among ten ischolar_mainstocks screened against M. incognita, three genotypes viz., Kumati kai (Citrulus colocynthus), african horned cucumber (Cucumis metuliferus) and pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) showed resistant reaction followed by two ischolar_mainstocks viz., Sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica,/i>) and mithi pakal (Momordica charantia var. muricata) which were moderately resistant. These ischolar_mainstocks were further used for grafting with bitter gourd scion.