Cultural practices during the soybean off-season for the control of Pratylenchus brachyurus

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of cultural practices, adopted during the soybean off-season, to reduce the Pratylenchus brachyurus population and damages to soybean. An experiment was carried out in a naturally‑infested agricultural field, in the growing seasons of 2010/2011, 2011/2012, and 2012/2013, in the municipality of Vera, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The treatments were: 'ADR 7010' (2010/2011) and 'ADR 300' pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) (in the following off-seasons); 'BRS 1010' (2010/2011) and 'GNZ 2005' corn (Zea mays) (in the following off-seasons); Congo grass (Urochloa ruziziensis); 'Marandu' palisade grass (U. brizantha 'Marandu'); slender leaf rattlebox (Crotalaria ochroleuca); sunn hemp (C. juncea); showy rattlebox (C. spectabilis); C. spectabilis + 'ADR 300' pearl millet (from 2011/2012 onwards); fallow (weed control by two diskings + herbicide); fallow (without weed control); and control (fallow with weed control by herbicide). Fallow (two diskings + herbicide), rattlebox species, and C. spectabilis + pearl millet reduced the nematode population before planting and during the early soybean stages. After soybean harvest, the nematode population did not differ among treatments, which indicates that the nematode multiplication on the crop was higher in treatments with lower initial population. The use of C. spectabilis, pearl millet, and C. spectabilis + pearl millet favored higher soybean yields. The cultivation of C. spectabilis – alone or associated with 'ADR 300' pearl millet – is the best suitable option to reduce the P. brachyurus population and damages to soybean in the off-season.