Abstract

A field experiment was conducted from February to May, 2004 and 2005 planting seasons at the Vegetable Evaluation and Research Station Farm located at Anse Boileau, Seychelles to evaluate the effect of soil solarization using plastic mulch in controlling root-knot nematode infestation and yield of lettuce. The experiment consisted of two treatments (solarized mulched plot and solarized non-mulched plot) laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The results obtained showed that the number of root-galls from lettuce roots produced under solarized mulched plot was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) reduced by 72.0 and 72.6%, respectively, in the year 2004 and 2005 compared to that obtained from the non-mulched plot. Similarly, the number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width, biological weight, economic weight and yield of lettuce were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased by 15.6, 40.0, 24.0, 4.7, 8.5 and 19.8% respectively in the year 2004 and by 8.0, 40.0, 28.5, 7.7, 9.9 and 15.4% respectively in the year 2005. The implication of this study showed that planting lettuce on solarized mulched plot was better and could therefore be recommended as a potential non-chemical measure in the control of root-knot nematode infestation and in maximizing lettuce yield in the Seychelles.

Key words: Solarization, root-knot nematode, lettuce.