Incidence of Meloidogyne incognita in cucumber fields

In 2008 and 2009, a survey was conducted in vegetable production area of Taxila to determine the incidence and distribution of root knot nematodes, Meloidogyne spp. in open-field and plastic tunnel planted cucumber crop. Two root knot nematode species. M. incognita and M. javanica, were identified from 200 samples. Meloidogyne incognita was the predominantly found species and was detected in 95% of all the fields surveyed. The average incidence was 46% and ranged from 30 to 60% on open-field planted cucumber crop, whereas on tunnel planted crop it was 35% and ranged from 20 to 50%. The cucumber planted in open-fields as well as plastic tunnels located in Faisal Town production area had the highest disease incidence of 60%, whereas the production area of Lossar Sharfu had the lowest frequency of 20% both in fields and tunnels. The average gall and egg mass indices on scale of 0 to 5 were same (2.6) on roots of open-field planted crop. But the roots of plants within tunnels had 3.85 % and 7.14 % greater gall and egg mass indices over that of open-field plants. These findings warrant that root knot nematode is widely distribution in vegetable production area.