Underground Hunt for Soil Pests Stunted areas from root-knot nematode
Identifying Nematode Population Locations Through Multi-State, Multi-Year Data Collection
Challenged with identifying areas of the United States facing destructive nematode threats, AgriThorityÂŽ implemented a multi-state, multi-year soil and root sample program to document geographic locations of the invasive and costly pests. Despite the minute size of these nonsegmented worms that typically measure only 1/500 of an inch in diameter and 1/20 of an inch in length, nematodes can cause economically significant damage to crops. Yield losses result from nematodes piercing and infecting the roots of the plant, stealing nutrients and water, and opening the door for bacterial and fungal infections. Dark areas in stain are nematode egg masses.
Through thousands of samples over a three-year period, analysis showed nematodes to be a significant risk for the majority of row crop growers. Soil and root samples were collected to detect both species and populations of nematodes in corn, soybean and cotton fields and identify areas with the highest need for control.
*Photos courtesy of Dr. Charles Overstreet, Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University
About the Author RICHARD SHAW, AgriThority Product Development Manager, led the nematode sampling program from planning through implementation and analysis. He is a veteran leader in pest surveys with proficiency in nematode identification, management and control. An entomologist by training, Shaw has more than 40 years of experience in varied global market segments of the agricultural chemicals industry while at Bayer CropScience, Aventis CropScience, RhonePoulenc and Union Carbide. He has managed technical support across broad-acre crops, vegetables, trees and vines, and specialty crops, including sugar cane and rice.
Soil and root samples were taken from a combination of randomly selected grower fields and demo sites. Results found nematodes on more than 75 percent of grower fields and more than 90 percent of demo sites. The program began with corn fields in 17 states, then the sampling footprint expanded in the second and third year to cover corn, soybean and cotton fields in more states and a wider range of climate and field conditions to improve the accuracy in key cropproduction areas.
Useful for Product Evaluation As samples and the geographic footprint increased, AgriThority could minimize the impact of potential outlier data and write analysis with a more accurate representation of fields in each state. At the end of the third year, AgriThority had three seasons of data to analyze and identify substantial nematode presence throughout corn, soybean and cotton production states. With the nematode infestation data mapped by presence on a state level and severity on a field-byfield basis, regions were identified where fields could be targeted to evaluate effectiveness of treatments for control.
Three-Year Summary of Soil and Root Sample Results for Plant Parasitic Nematodes 2016*
2017
2018
Random
Demo Site
Demo Site
913
357
899
Fields with nematodes detected*
707 (77.4%)
352 (98.6%)
831 (92.4%)
Soil samples with nematodes detected*
707 (77.4%)
334 (93.56%)
781 (86.9%)
Root samples with nematodes detected*
97 of 346 (28%)
260 (72.83%)
444 (49.4%)
States with more than 3 samples
9
18
25
Total states sampled
17
23
31
Methodology Sample locations
AgriThority agronomists and field samplers rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Over the three-year period from 2016 to 2018, soil and root samples were analyzed from more than 2,000 fields in 31 states to evaluate populations of 11 different species of plant parasitic nematodes. *2016 sampling program was conducted under different protocol.
2018 Nematode Samples per U.S. State 3 13 76 2
25 4
140
107
176 4
2
48
60
12 41
26 2
8 11
7 9
8 5
13
The nematode mapping aids product testing for control of the pest that is responsible for an estimated 10.2 percent yield loss in corn, 10.6 percent in soybeans and 10.7 percent in cotton.
7
34
31
10
3
11 1
In 2018 AgriThority sampled nearly 900 locations in 31 states for a total of more than 1,800 soil samples tested for nematodes.
Soil sampling and evaluation is one of our many product and field development services. See What We Do on our website.
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