Harwinder SinghDhillon, Narpinderjeet Kaur2018-01-122018-01-122017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810039305ABSTRACT Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is an economically important crop grown in open as well as in protected cultivation. More and more farmers in Punjab are opting for cucumber cultivation in protected structures. Root knot nematodes have been reported to be associated with cucumber worldwide. The present studies were conducted to know its incidence and severity in polyhouses and open cultivation as well as its management in infested soils. Forty five polyhouses were surveyed from five districts of Punjab viz a viz Ludhiana, Patiala, Bathinda, Sri Muktsar Sahib and Ferozepur. Of these thirty one polyhouses were found to be infested (Frequency of occurrence=68.68 percent). District wise maximum percent infested sites of root knot nematode were reported in Ludhiana (62.72 percent) followed by Ferozepur (50.00 percent), Patiala (39.13 percent), Bathinda (32.00 percent) and Sri Muktsar Sahib (30.00 percent). In open cultivation, thirty fields were surveyed, of which five were found to be infested with root knot nematode. Frequency of occurrence of root knot nematode in open cultivation of cucumber (16.66 percent) was comparatively less than polyhouses cultivation. Decreased infestations in fields were probably due to rotation with rice, fodder or garlic leading to low infestations in successive crop cucumber. The effect of five different inoculum levels of root knot nematode on two varieties of cucumber viz. Punjab Naveen and Pant Sanker revealed significant increase in soil and root population of nematode and decrease in growth parameters as increase in inoculum levels. Of the thirty genotypes of cucumber evaluated against root knot nematode, seven were found to be highly susceptible, twenty one susceptible and two as moderately susceptible. Studies on effect of three different chemicals revealed that Basamid @ 40 g/sqm significantly reduced M. incognita population. In studies on effectiveness of organic amendments and their integration with chemical, mustard cake @ 5 t/ha individually and its integration with Basamid (Basamid @ 20 g/sqm + Mustard cake @ 2.5 t/ha) were found to reduce nematode populations effectively.ennullThesis