Suitability of a Wheat-Sorghum, Double-Crop Rotation to Manage Criconemella xenoplax in Peach Production. A. P. Nyczepir, Research Nematologist; U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS, Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory, 111 Dunbar Road, Byron, GA 31008. P. F. Bertrand, Professor, Extension Plant Pathologist, University of Georgia, Tifton 31793; and B. M. Cunfer, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Georgia, Georgia Station, Griffin 30223. Plant Dis. 80:629. Accepted for publication 2 February 1996. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1996. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0629.

Twenty-one sorghum cultivars were evaluated for host suitability to the ring nematode Criconemella xenoplax in the greenhouse. No C. xenoplax were detected on peach in soil previously planted to GK8172C, Funks G-522DR, Jacques-505, McCurdy M51YG, Northrup King NK2660, or Northrup King NK-Savannah 5. Additionally, the effects of 1-, 2-, and 3-year wheat-sorghum and wheat-fallow preplant double-crop rotations for the management of C. xenoplax were studied from 1990 to 1993 in a field experiment in central Georgia. The field site had a previous history of peach tree short life and was heavily infested with C. xenoplax. All wheat-sorghum and wheat-fallow rotations suppressed population densities of C. xenoplax compared with 3 years of continuous peach (P ≤ 0.05). One year of wheat-fallow did not suppress C. xenoplax population densities as low as did 1 year of wheat-sorghum. No differences in suppression of C. xenoplax population density were detected among the 1, 2, and 3 years of wheat-sorghum rotation. A wheat-sorghum rotation has potential as a preplant strategy to manage C. xenoplax in peach orchards in the southeastern United States.