Most people talk about the good nematodes. Let me tell you of the
bad ones. No, no sneaking out of the room, there - you are GOING
to hear this!

As I understand it, my spraing (tobacco rattle virus) problems are
caused by it being transmitted by nematodes from host plants. The
solution is to eliminate all weeds - but the virus has the widest
host range of any known plant virus, including daisies, chickweed
and black nightshade (all persistent annual weeds in my garden).
And then to grow alfafa for 3 months, because the nematodes can't
catch it from that and lose it when they moult. Oh, yeah, in a
100-100 square yard plot :-(

But last year one of my French beans got a virus with very spraing-
like symptoms, and produced a dire crop - I discover that tobacco
rattle virus has been found in Phaseolus vulgaris ....

While chasing that up, I find that there is a bean stem nematode,
which very much matches my germination problems with peas and beans
(especially Phaseolus vulgaris varieties). Oh, joy!

No, I am NOT inclined to buy a tanker load of Nemik 10 and soak the
soil in it, but that seems to be the only thing that has much effect.

Oh, and wet weather increases the populations of nematodes, which
explains why the problem has been getting worse. The dry summers of
10+ years ago kept their numbers down. Last summer, on the other
hand, was nematode heaven ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.