Effect of soil fertility management practices on nematode destroying fungi in Taita, Kenya

Abstract

The study aimed at identifying soil fertility practices that promoted nematode destroying fungi in the soil and the treatments comprised of Mavuno fertilizer, Triple super- phosphate and calcium ammonium nitrate (TSP+CAN), cow manure and a control where no amendments were applied. This experiment was replicated in ten farms for three planting seasons. There were significant difference (P= 1.705 x 10-06) in occurrence of the nematode destroying fungi between soil fertility treatments. The highest mean occurrence of nematode destroying fungi was 1.6 which was recorded in soils amended with cow manure and the least was in soils from the control plots. A mean of 0.78 was recorded in soils from both TSP+CAN and Mavuno fertilizers. Plots amended with cow manure gave the highest diversity of nematodes followed by the control, then TSP+CAN and least in Mavuno with shannon indices of 0.34, 0.15, 0.13 and 0.11 respectively. Sixty percent of all the isolated nematode destroying fungi genera were from plots treated with cow manure and only twenty percent were from plots amended with the inorganic fertilizer