Plant Parasitic Nematodes (PPN) are regarded as one of the major challenges of sustainable tomato production in the world. Their control which involves the use of synthetic chemicals is being restricted because of their toxicity coupled with the environmental risk associated with their use. To this effect this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of flamboyant flower powder on M. incognita inoculated on tomato plants as an alternative control strategy of PPN. Screen house experiment (potted experiment) was conducted at the landscape garden of Modibbo Adama University Yola to evaluate the efficacy of plant powder for the control of root- knot nematode in tomato plant. The experimental design used was the Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five treatments replicated three times. D. regia powders were incorporated at different levels into the bucket each containing 4kg of sterilized soil. The plant powder was incorporated at the rate of 40g, 30g, 20g and 10g (T1, T2, and T3) respectively and T4 with no level of powder 0g. D. regia powder and 40g gave the best effect on M. incognita in the potted experiments as higher plant height, number of leaves; fresh shoot weight, galling index and least final nematode of both soil and roots were recorded. Therefore, from these findings, D. regia at 40g exhibited nematicidal effect on M. incognita in tomato plant followed by 30g, 20g, and 10g respectively. The nematicidal characteristics exhibited by this plant material (flamboyant flower) might be due to some phytochemical constituents present in the plant material. The control plant has least plant height, number of leaves, fresh shoot weight, plant fruit and higher fresh root weight as well as galling index and highest final root and soil nematode population.
Adamu Maryam Yahaya, Peter Philip and Yusuf Mustapha Imrana
