Assessment of Selected Pecan and Peach Rootstocks for Resistance to Meloidogyne Partityla

Open pollinated pecan seedling rootstocks were evaluated for resistance to Meloidogyne partityla, M. arenaria, and M. incognita in the greenhouse. Rootstocks tested included seedlings derived from open pollinated seed of ‘Apache’, ‘Caddo’, ‘Curtis’, ‘Moneymaker’, ‘Pawnee’, ‘Schley’, ‘Stuart’, and ‘Wichita’ parent trees. ‘Elliott’, a susceptible pecan rootstock for M. partityla, was included as the control. All open pollinated pecan rootstocks supported nematode reproduction as indicated by number of egg masses per plant, number of eggs per plant, and number of eggs per gram dry root, regardless of nematode species. Reproduction by M. partityla was greater (P < 0.05) on all pecan rootstocks than M. incognita and M. arenaria, indicating that pecan is a better host for M. partityla. All pecan seed sources were rated as good hosts (susceptible) to M. partityla infection and as poor hosts (resistant) to M. incognita and M. arenaria. In another greenhouse study, open pollinated ‘Elliott’ seedlings supported greater (P < 0.01) reproduction of M. partityla than seedlings from Guardian®, ‘Lovell’, ‘Halford’, ‘Flordaguard’ and ‘Nemaguard’ peach. All peach rootstocks were rated as non-hosts (highly resistant) to M. partityla infection. Interplanting pecan and peach trees in a commercial orchard environment does not appear to exacerbate the M. partityla population density between the two perennial crops in the southeastern United States.