Effect of tobacco seedbed treatments for nematode control on plant growth in the field.

Abstract

Trials at Millaroo in North Queensland showed that tobacco seedbeds treated with heat or by methyl bromide fumigation provided seedlings free from infestation by the root-knot nematode Me1oidogyne javanica (Trenh).
Early seedling growth was better in the burned beds than in methyl bromide fumigated beds, but an added application of nitrogen fertilizer eliminated this difference by the time of transplanting.
The methyl bromide treatment produced seedlings with markedly higher bromine content than seedlings from fired beds, but this difference was not shown in the cured leaf.
Plants from all the seedbed treatments were similar in field growth and in yield and value of cured leaf.