Control of the Potato-Root Eelworm Heterodera rostochiensis Wollenweber, by Allyl Isothiocyanate

Abstract

MORGAN¹ was the first to report that few eelworm cysts are found on the roots of potato plants grown together with white mustard in pots of soil infested with the potato-root eelworm. Afterwards² it was shown that root excretions from potato plants mixed with those from white mustard seedlings will no longer stimulate the emergence of eelworm larvæ from the cysts; this effect is also produced by black mustard, perhaps by cress, and, by certain solutions of allyl isothiocyanate, the mustard oil of black mustard seed³. Field trials with white mustard as green manure were a failure^{4, 5}, due, it has been suggested⁶, to the difficulty of applying the excretions in sufficient quantity in the field; the results with allyl isothiocyanate suggested that these difficulties might be overcome, and a small-scale field trial during 1944 gave promising results.