EFFECT OF INDIGO (Indigofera tinctoria L.) GREEN MANURING ON THE PROPERTIES OF SOIL AND THE CONTROL OF ROOT-KNOT DISEASE OF JUTE CAUSED BY NEMATODE (Meloidogyne javanica)

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out in Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during the period from March 2016 to August 2016 to study the effect of indigo (Indigofera tinctoria L.) green manuring on the properties of soil and the control of root-knot disease of jute caused by nematode (Meloidogyne javanica). In this experiment jute plants were used as test crop and indigo (Indigofera tinctoria L.) as green manuring crop. The experiment was laid out with seven treatments having three replications. Indigo green manuring had significant effects on the soil properties, growth of the shoots and the roots of jute plants. Height of the jute plants were recorded before harvesting the plants and the length of the roots, their dry weights and the number of gall g -1 of roots were recorded. It was clearly found that the growth of shoots and roots were highest for the control treatment but reduced for the egg mass of root-knot inoculated jute plants. The highest plant height (78.00 cm) and the root length (50.00 cm) were found for the control treatment where no gall was formed. On the contrary, the lowest plant height and roots length were 23.17 cm and 20.50 cm respectively for the 400 eggs mass inoculated treatment. Application of indigo green manuring and furadan also increased the shoots and roots growth and decreased the gall numbers even having egg mass of root-knot inoculation. Same results were found for the shoot and root weights of jute plants. Maximum shoot and root weights of 39.17 g and 12.00 g respectively were found for the control treatment. Only in the 400 eggs mass inoculated treatment the shoot and root weights were 22.33 g and 6.17 g which increased after green manuring with indigo or application of furadan. 200 eggs pot-1 inoculated jute plants formed 77.00 galls g-1 of root which increased to 89.83 galls g-1 root due to 400 eggs pot-1 inoculation. Indigo green manuring markedly decreased the galls g-1 of root compared to those without indigo manuring. Furadan application also reduced the galls number but indigo green manuring reduced more galls than that of the chemical furadan application. The negative correlations between the galling incidence and the plant height and the root length of jute plants revealed that the indigo green manuring was effective in increasing the growth of the jute by suppressing the nematode activity.