Effects of several amendments on organic melon growth and production, Meloidogyne incognita population and soil properties

This paper reports the effects of several amendments on the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognitapopulation, the melon production and some soil features. Treatments were: (i) virgin olive pomace (VOP)at rate of 22 t ha-1, (ii) olive pomace based compost (COP) at rate of 9 t ha-1, (iii) chicken manure (CM)at dose of 3 t ha-1, (iv) CM plus the nematophagous fungus Paecilomyces lilacinus, (CMB) at 3 t ha-1and4 kg ha-1, respectively and (v) the naturally infested and untreated control (CON). The doses of the amend-ments were calculated to provide the same amount of total nitrogen (ca. 120 kg ha-1). The experimentwas carried out following a randomized block design with four replications for each treatment.The melon production significantly increased with CM and CMB in comparison to all other treatments(P <= 0.05). VOP and COP enlarged the soil organic C, the total and organic N, and the exchangeable Kcontent, while CM and CMB increased the inorganic N and available P content. The root gall index, the soilnematode population density and the reproduction rate were significantly reduced in all amended plotsin comparison to CON. The use of P. lilacinus did not influence significantly the M. incognita population,suggesting that it is possible to manage the soil fertility and the root-knot nematode population by usingorganic amendments alone.