Effect of Olive Pomace Alone or Combined with Poultry Manure on Biocontrolling of Root-Knot Nematodes Meloidogyne spp. Infecting Tomato

This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of using olive pomace (OP) alone or in combination with poultry manure (PM) at mixing ratio of 75% OP :25% PM (w/w) as a safe alternative method for biocontrol of root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) on tomato (cv. Elisa). The application rates of olive pomace (OP) alone or with poultry manure (PM) mixture were 20, 40 and 60 g /kg soil. It was found that, the highest application rate of OP and PM at 60 g/kg soil resulted in the highest reduction percentages of the studied root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) infection parameters. Final population (Pf) and reproduction factor (RF) percentages of reductions under previous treatment recorded 97.73 and 97.75%, respectively. These results were comparable to those recorded with chemical nematicide (Vydate) treatment (98.50 and 98.45%), respectively. In contrary to root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) parameters, higher OP application rate over 20 g/kg soil with or without poultry manure resulted in lower growth attributes for all tomato crop growth parameters including length, fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots as well as fruit fresh weights. The highest fruit fresh weight of tomato (471.50 g/plant) was recorded at 20 g/kg soil with PM mixture treatment with Pf and Rf percentages reductions of 94.20 and 94.13%, respectively. In conclusion, olive pomace and poultry manure mixture amendment at rate of 20g/kg soil could be recommended for integrated pest management (IPM) strategies against nematode pests. This approach provided effective nematode suppression, while also reduced the environmental impacts on soil--plant equilibrium, as compared to the use of chemical nematicides.