root knot nematodes

[DKelly]

Hi Cabbage wont do the trick...its too mild you need hot hot mustards...it's the pungent compounds that does it.
CLEAR plastic works good on a hot week or two.
next year try tomatoes that have resistance to nematodes...listed as N in resistance description of a seed catolog.
Hope that helps!

[Ms. Jitomate]

Is now the time to plant mustard for the control of nematodes?

[DKelly]

yes plant if its not frozen use heaps of fertilizer.........let grow very rapidly cut of water if can 1 week prior to turning in mustards....i think the more mustard you have the better so plant it thick....any ways chopp and bury mustard with rototiller and cover plastic maybe a week. that's my advice anyhow.

[dice]

One typically plants mustard in early fall for a mustard cover
crop. It is winter-killed at 26F. Then you turn the dead top
growth into the soil a month before planting, and water it
if it does not rain.

http://plantcovercrops.com/mustard-as-a-cover-crop/

[Ms. Jitomate]

I can't rototill an 4'x8' bed but if I had mustard plants I can chop it and bury it. I found this one: http://www.groworganic.com/mustard-nemfix-lb.html

but it says cool season. I think it's too late to do this because I am in Southern California, cool season plants are bolting. What about milkweed, they also have glycosids?

[Mlm1]

I don't have nematodes but I do have fusarium and I have tried and continue to use companion planting, fish meal, beneficial fungi, etc and the thing that really turned my garden around was grafting onto fusarium resistant rootstock. I notice there are rootstock varieties with some resistance to nematodes and that might be worth trying.
Marla

[Iochroma]

As I recall, the way marigolds work on nematodes is that the worms enter the roots of the plant and are unable to complete their life-cycle; to be effective the whole field must be planted in marigolds for a season. Most of the ornamental types of marigold were not effective in this way; some types of Tagetes erecta were the best at it.

For those inclined to read more:
Effects of selected marigold varieties on root-knot nematodes and tomato and melon yields

http://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/pd....2002.86.5.505
Greenhouse studies on the effect of marigolds (Tagetes spp.) on four Meloidogyne species

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...344/pdf/62.pdf

[b54red]

The thing that helped with my nematode problem the most was working in fresh horse manure mucked from a stable and tilled in the same day. If you do this you need to do it months before planting to give whatever is in the horse manure time to work on the nematodes and to break down in the soil. I also added lots of organic mater.

Nemagone marigolds are helpful but only if interspersed throughout your plants. They can become quite a jungle and require you giving your plants a bit more water and fertilizer because the marigolds will take up quite a bit with their mass of shallow roots.

Water in a good quantity of sugar slowly into the soil a week or two before planting. I also add a cup of molasses to my hose end sprayer every time I fertilize with it. I don't know exactly how it works on nematodes but their numbers are reduced by this.

[carroll49]

Cypress mulch. Dig some into the ground. Put some around plants. Lowe's and HD. The bag goods that contain "Cypress Mulch Blend" is not as good as pure cypress.