Distribution and Host Range of the Burrowing Nematode in Puerto Rican Soils

Abstract

Because of quarantine recently established by the State of California on ornamental material imported from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Florida, a study was undertaken in 1955, which lasted until 1960, to determine the distribution of the burrowing nematode in Puerto Rico. Six of the most important ornamental nurseries and several localities in which economic important crops are grown were sampled. Eight different ornamental plants were found infected with burrowing nematodes in three of the nurseries. The nematode was found to be widely distributed and a serious problem in one of the nurseries, where it was presumably introduced with infected banana material. In the other two the nematode was present in limited numbers only and infected very few plants. The nematode was well distributed in banana and plantain, in which it caused a root rot condition that usually destroyed whole plantations. The distribution of the nematode and symptoms caused to these crops are discussed. Coffee and noncultivated cotton were also found to be attacked by the nematode. Five of the twelve plant species here reported as hosts of the burrowing nematode in Puerto Rico are probably newly reported hosts.