The Department of Nematology's weekly NEMA 250 seminar series is presented this week by:

Andreas Westphal, Assistant CE Specialist, Department of Nematology, UC Riverside 

Seminar Title: "Preparing for the post-fumigation era in Nematology perennial crops"

Abstract: Perennial crops are under constant attack by plant-parasitic nematodes. Due to the long cropping cycles of almond, pistachio, walnut, and grape ranging from 20 to >50 years, these soil-dwelling culprits have many years to establish and reproduce. Most prevalent species belong to Meloidogyne spp., Pratylenchus vulnus,  Mesocriconema xenoplax, and others at lower frequencies. After decades of successful use of soil fumigation, the ban of methyl bromide in 2005, and regulatory restrictions of 1,3-D containing compounds (Telone) make sustainable and economically feasible management strategies urgently necessary. Benefits of pre-plant treatments with highly-effective materials are challenging to replace with comprehensive management systems. Such an approach will benefit from rootstock genetics with reduced susceptibility/sensitivity to these soil-borne culprits. Other avenues will contain soil treatments with new chemistries or amendments with organic materials of different stages of composition or cover(/companion) cropping. This seminar will address how these aspects can be investigated, and discuss limitations of these approaches when new nematode parasites are identified.