Managing the decline of Potato Cyst Nematodes (PCN)

Much of the previous research on PCN has concentrated on the management of the pest in the potato crop. Less effort has been placed on influencing the survival of PCN between crops, even though this is known to vary significantly between different soils.

This project, which was sponsored by Defra through the Sustainable Arable LINK programme, aimed to understand the factors that affect PCN decline rates between potato crops. In particular, the project focussed on the fungal pathogens of PCN and evaluated the potential for the development of a biological control agent for PCN.

In several trials biological control fungi were able to control PCN multiplication rates however the fungi produced much less reliable effects than nematcide use and there were large differences in the ability of fungi to control PCN across different sites. It was concluded that the initial PCN population density in soil may be critical in the ability of biological control fungi to succeed.