EFFICACY OF BIODEGRADABLE AROMATIC PLANT EXTRACTS IN MANAGING ROOT-KNOT NEMATODES (MELOIDOGYNE INCOGNITA) INFESTATION IN GARDEN EGG (SOLANUM MELONGENA LINNAEUS)

Abstract

Eggplant (Solanum melongena Linnaeus.) is the fifth most commercially significant solanaceous crop. It is one of the widely planted commercial vegetable crops worldwide. Root-knot nematode (RKN) disease comes first among the diseases and pests infecting eggplant, and the losses caused by it exceeded 50% and estimated to be 100 billion dollars annually. The study Location is between (latitude 9o 37 N and longitude 6o 28 E) in southern guinea savanna Agroecological zone of Nigeria at the screen house of the Teaching and Research Farm of the Department of crop production Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger state. The experimental design for this study includes Extract Types, Concentration, Replicates. The types of extracts tested are Eucalyptus leaf, Eucalyptus bark, Neem leaf, and Neem bark. Each extract will be applied at five concentration levels: 0% (control), 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%. The Treatments combination is a 4 × 5 factorial experiment, arranged in Completely Randomized Design (CRD), each treatment combination was replicated three times. The study was conducted in a screenhouse during wet season. The control group consist of plants left untreated to serve as a baseline for comparison. This design ensures a robust assessment of the efficacy of the extracts under varied conditions. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of Eucalyptus globulus and Azadirachta indica extracts in controlling root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) infestation in garden egg (Solanum melongena). It also seeks to identify optimal extract concentrations for promoting plant growth and compares the effects of Eucalyptus leaf, Eucalyptus bark, Neem leaf, and Neem bark extracts on plant height and yield. The research explores these botanical extracts as eco-friendly alternatives for nematode management.as done by drenching the egg masses into a grove close to the root of the plant, while the extracts were also applied directly to the plant by drenching. Growth and yield data were subjected to Analysis of variance. The result revealed that Eucalyptus bark has the highest plant height of (57.00cm), indicating potentials growth promotion, Eucalyptus leaf and neem bark have similar plant height (50.86 and 50.20 cm), also the result shows that Neem leaf has the shortest plant height (43.53 cm). 0%, 25%, 75% and 100 % concentration (49.83 - 51.75 cm), indicate that there is no significant (P≥0.05) growth inhibition and 50% concentrations has significantly shortest plant height (17.33 cm), suggesting phytotoxicity, Eucalyptus leaf extract promote yield and neem leaf and bark extract inhibits yield. The concentration effect at 25% optimizes yield.100% concentration has a positive effect but may lead to phytotoxicity.