You have touched on a subject dear to my heart and it is a no man's land with little help available. Many experiments done over the years. Not too many RKN resistant veggies on the market. I feel your frustration. It sounds as though you are into large market gardening but here are two suggestions to try on a small scale to see if they work out for you. Both have worked well for my southern customers, along with rotation.

#1 - Plant a winter cover crop of the big leafy mustard greens. Southern Giant Curled is a good one as it can be planted late and is very cold resistant. Check Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for a bulk purchase. Turn mustard under in spring.

#2. After extensive trials I find that sugar controls RKN. Must be applied, lightly worked into soil surface at planting time and repeated four weeks later. For this you would use dried molasses available in 40# bags at feed/seed stores. Not expensive. Give this method a try. I now have many growing beautiful lawns and home veggie gardens using dried molasses twice a growing season.

Hi Nandina

Our church, Hillister Baptist in Woodville, TX has a project called Gardeners for Jesus. It's a donation-based non-profit to benefit our youth programs, with four retired growers and a total of about 10 acres. I have 5 acres under irrigation at my place - two acres with a gravity drip system and the rest under sprinklers.

Can you suggest a spread rate for the molasses? I'm wondering if we could do it in a row-banded application, say 12" wide for each row - since nematodes only move a few inches a year - or, maybe directly under each pepper transplant? It's sure worth a try if not too costly. Thanks for the tip.

We grow tons of greens every winter - Florida Broadleaf op mustard. Savannah hybrid mustard, Alamo and Royal Crown hybrid turnip and Georgia Southern op collards. There's usually not much residue left though because we harvest whole plants and market them intact. I planted Elbon rye once, years ago, but it left a terrible mess in the spring - doesn't decompose quickly in the cool soil.

My worst RKN problem is in the older plots, with the drip system - 100% failure of okra in one 2500 sq ft plot this year! If I were younger, I'd take those plots out of production and starve-out the nems with tilling and Roundup (they eat weeds too!) - or plant corn there for a trap crop. But I'm 73 and don't have that many gardening years left. LOL So I'm going to plant RKN-resistant tomatoes there instead (Niko and Amelia determinates from Harris Moran have iron-clad resistance - for awhile anyway), and do that each year until the nems break the resistance. Then I'll just use that land for onions and brassicas and let my kids deal with the nematodes.

My new three acres were planted last year for the first time. No RKN there yet, and we're being careful to wash tractor implements, tires, etc. It's just a matter of time, though - the other day I forgot to wash the tiller and moved from the infested to the clean area before realizing it!

I suspect that, with Methyl Bromide fumigant being phased-out, we're going to see some new nematicides come on the market that are safer to use, and not so expensive. As a last resort, Dow's Telon 11(dichloroprpene) is still labelled for vegetables - but it has to be professionally applied. We have a licensed ag professional that works with our project, but it's hard to justify those costly chems for this small operation. Vydate from DuPont is very toxic and I wouldn't use that one even if we could afford it. Our chem suppler says he can't even legally ship Vydate by usual means!

I'm hoping we see more resistant vegetables. The field trials for Carolina Wonder pepper - available now in small quantities from So Ex Seed Ex - are very positive. I may try a few of those plants in the most heavily infested areas next year. Have you tried that one?

Next year, I'll plant all the cucurbits and peppers in the new areas. Only problem is that it's all sprinkler irrigated which causes fungi and bacterial diseases, especially on cukes and squash. But, copper hydroxide (Kocide 3000 or Champ WG) will hopefully control that.

If it's not one thing, it's another! LOL

Thanks again for the helpful reply. Jack

Jack, sounds as though you are involved in a worthwhile project. I have not been able to continue my RKN experiments as we changed locations several years ago. What a blessing to no longer be dealing with the cantankerous problem.

Yes, you can add a large handful of dried molasses to each planting hole. Or, drill a planting furrow and heavily dust it with the molasses, then plant. No fear of using too much as it does not harm the plants.

I have successfully grown Charleston Belle Pepper but was disappointed in the yield. From the catalog descriptions it sounds as though Carolina Wonder might be the better choice.

Here in the southeast our growers rotate crops by covering every other row with black plastic through the growing season to solarize them and reverse the rows the next year. This is expensive but does give them some control over RKN.

I urge you to experiment with the dried molasses idea.

I'm going to get some molasses and try it next year. Putting it in the transplant hole is a realistic option - the roots will expand way out beyond the molasses, but it may at least limit the damage. Okra is the worst problem and I'll dig some molasses in at each planting location. I plant three seeds 36" apart, in rows 6' apart (like squash hills) and thin to one plant. I usually put-in 1000 row/ft of okra - about 350 producing plants. And YES, I have picking help! LOL - we plant Emerald Velvet and pick every other day.

I noticed that SESE no longer lists Charleston Belle, just Carolina Wonder. Maybe that's why - better yield. They don't offer it in commercial quantities though.

Jack