Weed hosts of plant parasitic nematodes in different production areas of banana and plantain in the provinces Artemisa and Havana

Abstract

Several species of plant parasitic nematodes are associated with banana and plantain in producing countries, where they can cause yield losses of up to 20 %. In their management different practices that include the use of healthy planting material, soil tillage, fallowing, chemical and biological substances are used; in all cases it comes to prevent them from penetrate and establish in production systems. However these parasites have survival mechanisms that allow them to spend some time without food in the absence of crop, but there are also alternative hosts in weeds. The objective was to determine the weeds linked to banana and plantain crops in different production areas of the provinces (Havana and Artemisa) and identify plant parasitic nematodes associated with them. Fifteen areas were sampled in two provinces, where weeds present were taken with the soil and roots. In the laboratory they were revised at the stereoscope to determine the presence of galls or typical cysts forming nematodes and cyst nematodes respectively. The soil and roots were processed separately in Baermann funnels for 72 hours and subsequently analyzed in search for vermiform nematodes. They were identified thirty species of weeds, of which seven were hosts of Rotylenchulus reniformis, four of Meloidogyne incognita, three of Pratylenchus coffeae, two of Helicotylenchus multicinctus and one of Helicotylenchus dihystera. The presence of these alternate hosts is an alert to producers to maintain plantations without these species which allow the survival of nematodes, although control measures are made in the main crop.