Host suitability of grain sorghum and sudangrass for Pratylenchus brachyurus

Abstract

Nowadays, the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus brachyurus (Godfrey) is a major pest of soybean in Brazil, mainly in areas using double cropping with maize or cotton, which are suitable hosts for P. brachyurus. A great effort has been made to find cash crops for P. brachyurus management. Grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.)] was classified as a non-host for P. brachyurus but based on a single trial. It would be a valuable option as a culture for double cropping with soybean, as it is profitable and can be used in root-lesion nematode management. Sudangrass (S. bicolor var. sudanense) is not directly profitable, but Brazilian farmers favor it because it can produce pasture, green chop, silage, or hay under unfavorable hydric conditions. However, no information is available regarding the suitability of sudangrass for P. brachyurus. Thus, the current study aimed to assess the suitability of grain sorghum and sudangrass for P. brachyurus in two glasshouse trials. The first trial tested sudangrass and grain sorghum ‘DKB 510’, ‘Dow 740’, ‘Dow 822’, ‘DKB 599’, and ‘AG 1040’. The second trial retested sudangrass and grain sorghum ‘Dow 740’ and ‘DKB 599’. The results demonstrated that sudangrass and grain sorghum were suitable hosts for P. brachyurus. These results, in addition to those obtained for other types of sorghum, emphasize that S. bicolor and sudangrass should be avoided in fields infested with P. brachyurus, as they increase the nematode population.