Suitability of Alfalfa, Corn, Oat, Red Clover, and Snapbean as Hosts for the Potato Rot Nematode, Ditylenchus destructor. A. E. MacGuidwin, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706. S. A. Slack, Henry & Mildred Uihlein Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-5908. Plant Dis. 75:37-39. Accepted for publication 21 June 1990. Copyright 1991 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-75-0037.

The reproductive potential of the nematode Ditylenchus destructor was evaluated on two reported hosts, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and red clover (Trifolium pratense), and three crops of unknown host status, corn (Zea mays), oat (Avena sativa), and snapbean (Phaseolus vulgaris), in microplot, greenhouse, and laboratory experiments. Potato (Solanum tuberosum) and fallow treatments were included for comparison. Relative to the potato cultivar Norland, snapbean was a good host, red clover and corn were intermediate hosts, alfalfa was a poor host, and oat was a nonhost for nematodes grown in vitro in monoxenic cultures. No host supported the increase of nematode populations in the microplot or greenhouse experiments. Due to the apparent mortality of D. destructor in soil habitats and its proclivity to feed on fungi, the suitability of plant hosts for increasing nematode populations is best assessed using in vitro screens.