Host suitability of arable and vegetable crops for Pratylenchus penetrans

A method was developed to test host suitability for the rootlesion nematode, P. penetrans in pot-experiments. Quarts-sand with transplanted seedlings was inoculated with a suspension of P. penetrans in varying stages. It was demonstrated that in a greenhouse at 20 degrees C, a period of six weeks is enough for one generation to develop. After this period root material is separated from the soil and put in a mystifier where nematodes leave the roots. The root material should be held in the mystifier for four weeks. After elutriation of the soil fraction in the Oostenbrink elutriator it appeared that only few nematodes are in the soil fraction. Therefore it is not necessary to process the soil within potexperiments.