Screening of Tuberose, Agave amica (Medik.) Thiede & Govaerts Cultivars for Resistance against Root-Knot Nematode, Meloidogyne incognita

This study aimed to identify sources of resistance to the root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita among different tuberose cultivars. The experiment was conducted in the nursery of the Plantation Crop Garden, Biswanath College of Agriculture, AAU, Biswanath Chariali, Assam during the summer season of 2024. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomised design with five replications for each cultivar. For each of the six tuberose cultivars, a single bulb approximately 3 cm in diameter was planted per pot, and the plants were inoculated with freshly hatched second-stage juveniles of M. incognita at 1 J2/cc of soil 15 days after planting. Observations made 45 days after inoculation showed that the average number of galls per root system in different cultivars ranged from 8.4 to 54.0 and the root-knot index ranged from 2.0 to 4.0. Based on the root-knot index, the cultivar Shringar was categorised as resistant and all other cultivars, namely Mpaut, Shyadri Baman, BR-17, BR-19 and Phule Rajani were categorised as susceptible. The findings indicated that only one cultivar was resistant to the root-knot nematode and could be considered alongside other management options for root-knot nematodes in tuberose cultivation.