Bean plants repel nematodes - Science Update - Brief Article

Agricultural Research,  Jan, 2002  by Brad Morris

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Incorporating the dried plant material of several unusual types of beans into the soil may reduce the number of root-knot nematodes dwelling there, an ARS study suggests. These minute roundworms in the soil cause yield losses and control costs of $53 million annually in the South alone.

When dried parts of little-known legumes like coffee senna, sun hemp, and jack beans were mixed into potting soils, scientists got reductions as high as 89 percent in the number of nematode galls on the roots of test tomato plants. This nematicidal activity has been attributed to natural substances produced in the plants' seeds, stems, and leaves.

Hundreds of semitropical legume species belonging to 64 genera and collected from around the world are being maintained in ARS' Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Research Unit. Many of these could have multiple uses--from curbing erosion and controlling weeds to yielding pharmaceutical compounds for drugs.

Brad Morris,
USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Resources
Conservation Research Unit, Griffin,
Georgia; phone (770)
229-3253, e-mail

s9bm@arsgrin.gov.

COPYRIGHT 2002 U.S. Government Printing Office
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group