Species of Pratylenchus Associated with Solanum tuberosum cv Superior in Ohio

Seventy-three Ohio fields comprising ca. 440 ha of cv Superior potatoes were surveyed in 1977 for plant-parasitic nematodes. Of eight genera of plant-parasitic nematodes, Pratylenchus was found most frequently, occurring in 65% of the soil samples and 84% of the root samples. Populations of Pratylenchus were consistently higher than populations of the other nematode genera. The six species of Pratylenchus extracted from potato roots, in descending order of frequency, were P. crenatus, P. penetrans, P. scribneri, P. alleni, P. thornei, and P. neglectus. Prevalence of these Pratylenchus species in Ohio potato fields suggests that they could be involved with vascular wilt fungi in premature death of cv Superior potato vines known in Ohio as "early dying."