Occurrence of Aphelenchoides besseyi Christie on strawberries growing in commercial greenhouses

Abstract

In December of 1975, occurrence of A. besseyi was observed on strawberries (cultivar Flokowase) growing in some greenhouses in Oigawa-cho, Shizuoka-ken, Japan. The strawberries infected by the nematodes showed dwarfing symptom that was very similar to summer dwarf. The symptom became less distinct from winter to spring, but many nematodes were isolated from buds of strawberries in late spring. The fact showed that the nematode could easily do overwintering under these conditions. While A. besseyi has been known as a parasite of strawberries in the southern U. S. A., the nematodes have been widely distributed in Japan as a parasite of rice plant but not of strawberries. So, concerning the occurrence of the nematodes on strawberries, a study has to be made to see if there is any correlation between the population of the nematodes on rice plants and that on strawberries.