Evaluation of nematicides for Meloidogyne enterolobii management in sweetpotato

Sweetpotato is an important crop whose roots are consumed by people worldwide. Meloidogyne enterolobii stands out as a highly deleterious variant among the species of root-knot nematode that causes significant damage in sweetpotato. In the present study, the activity of four nematicides against M. enterolobii was assessed both in vitro and in growth cabinet experiments. After 48 hours of exposure, fluopyram and cyclobutrifluram had a greater negative effect on the motility of M. enterolobii second-stage juveniles (J2s) compared to fluensulfone and hymexazol, with respective median effective concentration (EC₅₀) values of 0.204, 0.423, 22.335 and 216.622 mg L⁻¹. When M. enterolobii eggs were incubated for 72 hours at the highest concentration of each nematicides, the inhibitory hatching effect of cyclobutrifluram (2.5 mg L⁻¹), fluopyram (1.25 mg L⁻¹) and fluensulfone (80 mg L⁻¹) surpassed 85%, whereas hymexazol (640 mg L⁻¹) was only 67%. Similar results were observed in growth cabinet experiments as well. The disease index (DI) and gall index (GI) were significantly decreased by all four nematicides compared to the control. However, the application of hymexazol did not yield a statistically significant difference in the egg masses index compared to the control, a finding which may be attributed to its potentially limited penetrability through the eggshell barrier. Overall, this study has demonstrated that all four nematicides effectively suppress M. enterolobii in sweetpotato, and this is the first report on the nematicidal activity of cyclobutrifluram and hymexazol against M. enterolobii.