Abstract

Effects of cucurbitacin-containing phytonematicides on plants could be stimulative, neutral or inhibitive in relation to accumulation of essential nutrient elements under controlled environments, with limited information on how plants would respond to the products under field conditions. The objective of this study was to determine whether increasing concentration of Nemarioc-AL and Nemafric-BL phytonematicides under field conditions would have stimulative, neutral or inhibitive effects on accumulation of selected mineral nutrient elements in tomato leaf tissues. Separate trials for each product were conducted in spring 2017 and validated in 2018. Potassium, Na and Zn over Nemarioc-AL phytonematicide exhibited positive quadratic relations, with models explaining the associations by 91, 96 and 89%, respectively. Sodium and Zn over Nemafric-BL phytonematicide exhibited positive quadratic relations, with associations explained by 93 and 83%, respectively. In contrast, K over Nemafric-BL phytonematicide exhibited negative quadratic relation, with the association explained by 96%. In all cases, the accumulation of nutrient elements was highly tolerant to the phytonematicides. In conclusion, increasing concentration of phytonematicides had stimulative effects on accumulation of selected mineral nutrient elements in tomato leaf tissues.